HENRY  S.  FOOTE. 


WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION; 


OR, 


SCYLLA  AND  CHAHYBDIS. 


CONSISTING   OF 


OBSERVATIONS  UPON  THE  CAUSES,  COURSE,  AND 
CONSEQUENCES 


OP 


®!je  Cat*  Curil  iDar  in  tl)e  Hmtrir 


BY    H.   S.   FOOTE. 


Et  pater  Anchises :  Nimirum  hsec  ilia  Charybdis ; 
llos  Helenus  scopulos,  hsec  saxa  horrenda  canebat. 
Eripite,  o  socii ;  pariterque  insurgite  remis. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN      SQUARE. 

1866. 


'BBAHIAJTS  R/i'Q 

• «  •« »    v     i   WifcgJ 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-six,  by 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District 
of  New  York. 


EPISTLE  DEDICATORY. 


To  the  Honorable  NOAH  H.  SWAYNE,  one  of  the  Justices 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

MORE  than  forty  years  ago,  my  dear  sir,  you  and  I 
were  youthful  fellow-students  of  the  legal  science  in  the 
bosom  of  our  loved  native  state,  and  in  the  sweet  village 
of .  Warrenton,  so  memorable  in  its  connection  with  the 
ever-shifting  current  of  the  recent  most  deplorable  civil 
war.  We  were  examined  for  license  by  the  same 
judges,  and  at  the  same  time,  in  the  year  1823 ;  after 
which,  in  a  few  months,  you  migrated  to  the  State  of 
Ohio,  where  you  have  since  attained  such  eminence  as 
a  jurist  and  forensic  advocate  as  few  of  your  fellow- 
countrymen  have  been  able  to  reach ;  while  the  graces 
which  distinguish  you  in  social  and  in  domestic  life 
have  been  such  as  to  surround  you  with  almost  innu 
merable  friends,  and  apparently,  too,  without  the  cus 
tomary  drawback  of  those  enmities  which  are  unfortu 
nately  sometimes  awakened  in  ungenerous  bosoms  even 
by  the  exhibition  of  superior  merit.  The  friendly  re 
lations  which  existed  between  us  in  the  days  of  open 
ing  manhood  have  been  maintained  up  to  the  present 
moment,  undisturbed  even  by  the  occurrences  of  a  de 
plorable  civil  war,  the  territorial  character  of  which  nec 
essarily  located  us,  during  its  sanguinary  continuance, 

A 

215594 


li  EPISTLE  DEDICATORY. 

on  opposite  sides ;  a  circumstance  which,  though  it  would 
have  been  necessarily  fatal  to  ordinary  friendship,  has,  in 
our  case,  only  served  to  draw  more  tightly  the  cords  of 
sympathy,  and  to  afford  you  an  opportunity  of  proving 
in  a  thousand  ways,  as  you  have  done,  how  possible  it 
is  for  a  truly  magnanimous  spirit  to  do  justice,  and  to 
exercise  the  most  generous  kindness,  too,  toward  those 
around  whose  character  and  motives  of  action  untoward 
circumstances  may  have  for  a  time  cast  clouds  of  un 
merited  suspicion,  and  which  the  undimmed  eye  of  a 
true  and  resolute  friendship  could  alone  have  been  able 
to  penetrate. 

Allow  me  the  honor  of  giving  you  some  additional 
assurance  of  my  esteem,  as  well  as  of  my  gratitude  for 
past  kindnesses,  by  dedicating  to  you  the  following  vol 
ume;  which,  though  the  imperfect  product  of  a  few 
weeks'  labor,  and  written  under  circumstances  not  very 
propitious  to  the  display  of  mere  literary  ability,  yet 
will,  as  I  hope,  serve  to  yield  you  more  or  less  of  en 
tertainment  in  such  moments  of  relaxation  as  may  be 
occasionally  allowed  you  when  temporarily  withdrawn 
from  the  arduous  duties  of  the  very  responsible  official 
position  which  you  now  so  deservedly  occupy  and  so 
signally  adorn. 

H.  S.  FOOTE. 

NEW  YORK,  December,  18G5. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Introductory  Remarks. — Allusion  to  the  "Irrepressible  Conflict"  Theory. 
— Direct  Issue  made  therewith. — Sectionalism. — Its  dangerous  Tend 
encies. — Geographical  Parties. — Washington's  Warning  against  them. 
— Mr.  Webster's  Remarks  upon  Sectionalism. — Author's  first  Acquaint 
ance  with  Mr.  Webster  in  1825, — Renewal  of  that  Acquaintance  twen 
ty  Years  thereafter. — Allusions  to  Mr.  Webster's  Life  and  Character. — 
Remarks  upon  his  great  Ability  as  a  Statesman  and  Orator. — His  ami 
able  Qualities  in  private  Life. — Mr.  Webster's  funeral  Notice  of  his  great 
Rival,  Mr.  Calhoun Page  13 

CHAPTER  II. 

Early  colonial  Settlements  in  North  America. — Character  of  the  People 
very  nearly  identical.  —  Similitude  of  Customs,  Language,  Religion, 
Laws,  and  Mode  of  Life. — No  Conflict  of  Sentiment  then  between  the 
Colonists  of  the  North  and  South  in  regard  to  African  Slavery. — Tes 
timony  of  Mr.  Greeley  on  this  Point. — Kindly  social  and  commercial 
Intercourse  between  the  Colonists  North  and  South.  —  Their  united 
Defense  of  the  infant  American  Settlements  against  Indian  Violence 
and  the  hostile  French. — Early  Suggestion  of  a  confederate  Union  be 
tween  all  the  British  Colonies  in  North  America. — Strange  Interpreta 
tion  of  a  Portion  of  the  Language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
— Mr.  Jefferson's  important  Statement  as  to  the  Action  of  the  Confed 
erate  Congress  in  regard  to  Slavery  at  the  Time  the  Declaration  was 
adopted. — Mr.  Webster's  important  Recital  of  historic  Facts  connected 
with  this  Subject  in  his  7th  of  March  Speech 30 

CHAPTER  III. 

Continuation  of  the  same  Subject.  —Cession  of  Northwestern  Territory  by 
Virginia  and  other  States  in  1784:. — Ordinance  of  1787. — Federal  Con- 


IV  CONTENTS. 

vention. — Correlative  and  contemporaneous  Action  of  that  Body  and 
of  the  Confederate  Congress  upon  the  Subject  of  African  Slavery.— No 
Conflict  worth  mentioning  then  existed  between  the  States  of  the  North 
and  the  South  in  regard  to  African  Slavery. — Action  of  Congress  upon 
Abolition  Petitions  in  1790. — Congressional  Resolution  on  the  Subject 
of  non-interference  with  Slavery  in  the  States  by  the  general  Govern 
ment  for  many  Years  faithfully  observed  in  the  North. — Mr.  Webster's 
tmcontradicted  Statement  on  this  Subject  in  the  Debate  between  Mr. 
Hayne  and  himself. — Washington's  Administration. — Election  of  John 
Adams  ;  his  stormy  Administration. — Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison, 
and  Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798,  '9. — Nullification  and 
Secession  growing  out  of  these. — John  C.  Calhoun. — Confederate  Con 
stitution  professedly  based  upon  the  absolute  Sovereignty  of  the  States. 
— This  Principle  shamefully  abandoned  by  the  Confederate  Government 
itself. — Successive  Administrations  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison,  and 
Mr.  Monroe. — Rise  of  the  Missouri  Question,  and  violent  Agitation  con 
sequent  thereupon. — Wise  and  salutary  Compromise  of  that  Question. 
— Remarks  upon  the  Value  of  legislative  Compromises  in  general,  with 
Mr.  Calhoun's  Views  of  the  same Page  40 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Happy  Cessation  of  Excitement  after  the  Adoption  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise. — Era  of  good  Feeling  during  the  Remainder  of  Mr.  Monroe's 
Administration. — Presidential  Contest  of  1824. — Mr.  Adams's  Elec 
tion  by  the  House  of  Representatives  to  the  Presidency. — Inaugural 
Speech  of  Mr.  Adams. — Interesting  Scene  in  the  White  House  on  the 
Occasion  of  President  Monroe's  taking  Leave  of  his  Friends  to  return 
to  his  private  Home  in  Virginia. — Intense  Excitement  growing  out  of 
Mr.  Adams's  Election,  but  without  any  Intermixture  of  sectional  Feel 
ing. — Violent  and  illiberal  Opposition  to  his  Administration. — Defeat 
of  Mr.  Adams  for  Re-election  in  1828,  and  Elevation  of  General  An 
drew  Jackson  in  his  Stead. — Rise  of  Nullification  in  South  Carolina  in 
1832. — General  Jackson's  Proclamation  against  South  Carolina.— Mr. 
Clay's  successful  Scheme  of  Pacification,  known  as  the  Compromise 
Tariff  Bill. — Origin  of  Abolition  Societies  in  1835. — Minute  historical 
Account  of  these  Societies  given  in  Mr.  Greelcy's  "American  Conflict." 
— Mr.  Webster's  striking  Remarks  upon  these  Societies  in  his  7th  of 
March  Speech. — Author  declines  any  special  Notice  of  the  Preseuta- 


CONTENTS.  V 

tion  of  Abolition  Petitions,  and  the  excited  Discussions  growing  out  of 
the  same. — Notice  of  the  Acquisition  of  Texas  with  the  general  Con 
sent  of  the  American  People. — Breaking  out  of  the  Mexican  War,  and 
Presentation  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  in  the  Midst  thereof. — Author's 
Election  to  the  United  States  Senate,  with  Jefferson  Davis  as  his  offi 
cial  Colleague. — Serious  political  Disagreements  between  them. — 
Sketch  of  President  Davis's  Character,  with  some  Notice  of  his  Histo 
ry. — Session  of  the  United  States  Senate  commencing  in  December, 
1847. — Mr.  Dickinson's  Non-intervention  Resolution,  and  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's  extreme  Opposition  to  it. — Curious  colloquial  Scene  in  the  Sen 
ate. — General  Cass's  Nicholson  Letter. — Complimentary  Notice  of  Gen 
eral  Cass Page  58 

CHAPTER  V. 

Proceedings  upon  the  Wilmot  Proviso  during  the  Congressional  Session 
of  1847,  '8. — Mr.  Clayton's  Compromise  Bill,  and  its  unfortunate  Defeat 
in  the  House  of  Representatives. — General  Cass  as  the  Presidential 
Candidate  of  the  Democratic  Party  in  1848.  — The  Contest  between 
himself  and  General  Taylor  by  no  means  of  a  sectional  Character. — 
Election  of  the  latter. — Appearance  of  William  L.  Yancey  at  the  Balti 
more  Convention  of  1848,  and  the  prompt  Rejection  by  that  Body  of 
his  celebrated  Protection  Proposition.  —  Unfortunate  Division  of  the 
Strength  of  the  Democratic  Party  in  1848  between  the  Hunkers  and 
Barnburners,  resulting  in  the  Nomination  of  Martin  Van  Buren  and 
Charles  Francis  Adams  by  the  Buffalo  Convention. — Mr.  Gott's  Reso 
lution. — Declaration,  as  early  as  1843,  by  Messrs.  Adams,  Slade,  Gid- 
dings,  and  others  in  Favor  of  dissolving  the  Federal  Union  in  the  Event 
of  the  Annexation  of  Texas. — Inflammatory  Address  issued  by  these 
Gentlemen. — Author's  first  acquaintance  with  John  Quincy  Adams 
and  his  accomplished  Lady.  —  Commendatory  Notice  of  his  Life  and 
Character.  —  Parallel  between  John  Quincy  Adams  and  John  C.  Cal-' 
houn 78 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Session  of  Congress  closing  on  the  3d  of  March,  1849. — Important  Test 
Question  raised  by  Mr.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  in  Connection  with  the 
Oregon  Bill,  which  was  then  pending. — Defeat  of  Mr.  Douglas's  Prop 
osition  by  the  unexpected  but  effective  Interposition  of  Mr.  Wm.  II. 


VI  CONTENTS. 

Seward,  who  had  not  yet  taken  his  Seat  as  a  Senator  from  New  York. 
— Mr.  Seward  at  that  Time  opposed  to  all  Compromise  of  the  Slavery 
Question. — Extract  from  a  memorable  Speech  of  his,  delivered  in  the 
United  States  Senate  in  the  Year  1850,  having  Eolation  to  this  Subject. 
— Mr.  Seward's  Cleveland  Speech  in  1848. — Important  Extracts  there 
from. — General  Taylor's  Administration. — Violent  Excitement  begin 
ning  to  rage  both  North  and  South  upon  the  Slavery  Question,  and  in 
Connection  with  the  Admission  of  California. — Unfortunate  non-ac 
tion  Policy  of  General  Taylor's  Administration. — Alarming  Condition 
of  the  Country. — Election  of  Messrs.  Gwin  and  Fremont  United  States 
Senators  from  California. — Attempt  of  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Benton  to 
revive  his  decaying  Popularity  by  becoming  the  Champion  of  Califor- 
nian  Admission. — Efforts  of  the  Author  to  defeat  this  Scheme  of  self 
ish  Ambition. — Eetrospect  of  Colonel  Benton's  Attempt,  about  the 
Close  of  Mr.  Polk's  Administration,  to  bring  about  the  Eescission  of 
the  Treaty  with  Mexico,  by  which  all  the  territorial  Domain  recently 
acquired  would  have  been  lost  to  the  United  States  but  for  the  Defeat 
of  that  Attempt. — Signal  Defeat  of  this  unpatriotic  Scheme,  and  re 
markable  Particulars  connected  therewith  not  heretofore  divulged. — 
Colonel  Benton  deprived  in  Democratic  Caucus  of  the  Chairmanship 
of  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Aftairs  in  the  Senate  on  the  Motion  of  the 
Author,  after  a  two-days'  Struggle,  by  a  Majority  of  one  Vote  only. — 
Mr.  Benton's  extraordinary  Attack  on  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Others  in  his 
public  Speech  delivered  in  Missouri  in  the  Summer  of  1848,  and  Mr. 
Calhoun's  overwhelming  Eesponse  thereto,  drawn  up  at  Author's  earn 
est  Instance. — Short  Sketch  of  Colonel  Benton's  public  Character,  and 
Delineation  of  his  intellectual  Qualities..... , Page  94 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Review  of  General  Taylor's  non-action  Policy. — Painful  and  exciting 
Rumors  in  regard  to  the  Instrumentalities  employed  by  him  to  carry 
that  Policy  into  Operation. — Intense  Alarm  awakened  among  Patri 
ots  as  to  the  Fate  of  the  Country.  —  Mr.  Clay  leaves  his  own  Home, 
and  comes  to  Washington  upon  a  Mission  of  Pacification. — He  is  met 
upon  his  arrival  there  with  general  Cordiality  and  Respect. — Mr.  Ben- 
ton  attempts  to  inveigle  him  into  a  false  Position  in  regard  to  the  Meas 
ure  of  admitting  California,  and  is  for  a  time  successful. — Mr.  Clay's 
Programme  of  Adjustment,  and  the  "five  bleeding  Wounds." — This 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

Gentleman  severs  his  Alliance  with  Mr.  Benton,  and  becomes  the  Cham 
pion  of  the  famous  Omnibus  Scheme. — His  magnanimous  waver  of  cer 
tain  abstract  Opinions  with  a  View  to  general  Conciliation. — First  meet 
ing  of  the  Nashville  Convention. — Great  Excitement  consequent  upon 
its  Proceedings. — Anti-slavery  Movements  about  the  same  Period,  and 
Mr.  Seward's  anti-compromise  Speech. — Resolution  introduced  by  the 
Author,  several  weeks  before,  for  the  raising  of  the  famous  Committee 
of  Thirteen,  finally  pushed  to  a  Vote  at  the  Instance  of  Mr.  Cass. — Emi 
nently  patriotic  Conduct  of  Mr.  Webster  on  this  Occasion. — Resolution 
finally  carried.  —  Mr.  Clay  appointed  Chairman  thereof,  who  speed 
ily  brings  in  his  Report,  upon  which  an  animated  Discussion  oc 
curs Page  113 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Great  Compromise  Struggle  of  1850. — Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster  the  prin 
cipal  Figures  in  the  Picture.  —  Mr.  Webster's  7th  of  March  Speech, 
and  its  prodigious  Effect  upon  the  Public  Mind. — Striking  Extracts 
therefrom. — Mr.  Calhoun's  last  Speech  in  the  Senate,  in  which  he  urges 
that  the  Admission  of  California  shall  be  made  a  test  Question. — Em 
phatic  Protest  by  the  Author  to  this  Portion  of  the  Speech,  and  painful 
Altercation  with  Mr.  Calhoun  in  Reference  to  the  disputed  Point. — 
Proceedings  of  the  Nashville  Convention. — Wise  and  patriotic  Conduct 
of  Judge  Sharkey,  the  President  thereof,  which  prevents  immediate 
Mischief. — Judge  Sharkey  arrives  in  Washington,  and  is  offered  the 
Department  of  War,  which  he  declines. — Some  Account  of  Judge  Shar- 
key's  Life  and  Character 129 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Omnibus  Bill  under  Consideration. — Strenuous  Opposition  of  General 
Taylor's  Administration  to  its  Adoption. — Last  Appearance  of  Presi 
dent  Taylor  in  Public  on  the  4th  of  July,  1850,  at  Monument  Square, 
in  Washington  City,  and  touching  Scene  which  occurred  there. — Gen 
eral  Taylor's  Decease  a  few  Days  thereafter. — Mr.  Webster's  eloquent 
Funeral  Notice  of  him. — Mr.  Fillmore's  Inauguration  as  President,  and 
efficient  Support  of  the  Compromise  Measures. — Official  Order  found 
on  General  Taylor's  Table  after  his  Decease,  ordering  the  forcible  Ex 
pulsion  from  New  Mexico  by  the  Military  of  Texan  Settlers. — Mr. 
Clay's  heroic  Remonstrance  against  this  coercive  Policy,  which  he  re- 


VI 11  CONTENTS. 

garded  as  needlessly  endangering  the  Union. — Fierce  Opposition  to  the 
Compromise  Measures  on  the  Part  both  of  Extremists  of  the  North  and 
Extremists  of  the  South. — Terrible  Struggle  over  the  Omnibus  Bill  in 
the  Senate,  which  is  finally  broken  into  Fragments  mainly  by  the  In 
discretion  of  its  own  Friends,  but  the  integral  Portions  of  which  finally 
pass  both  Houses. — The  Country  quieted  under  the  Influence  of  this 
Measure.— Sage  and  firm  Conduct  of  President  Fillmore  in  causing  the 
Compromise  Enactments  to  be  every  where  faithfully  executed. — Cel- 
ebra.ted  Rescue  Case  in  Massachusetts,  and  interesting  Proceedings  in 
Congress  in  Connection  therewith Page  148 

CHAPTER  X. 

Country  completely  restored  to  Quiet  under  the  Compromise  Measures, 
except  in  several  of  the  Southern  States. — Exciting  Contest  in  Georgia 
and  Mississippi  in  1850,  '1,  upon  the  Disunion  Issue,  in  both  of  which 
States  the  Union  Cause  is  finally  triumphant. — South  Carolina,  failing 
to  obtain  co-operative  Aid,  at  last  subsides  into  a  State  of  Quietude. — 
The  Election  of  Mr.  Pierce  to  the  Presidency  as  an  avowed  Supporter 
of  the  Finality  Principle,  who  calls  Mr.  Davis  to  the  Department  of 
War,  and  the  Slavery  Agitation  is  at  once  renewed. — Mr.  Pierce's 
gross  Infidelity  to  his  Pledges,  by  whose  Indiscretion  and  Misconduct 
the  Conflict  of  sectional  Factions  is  again  revived. — Mr.  Douglas  un 
fortunately  yields  to  the  Counsels  addressed  to  him  from  various  Quar 
ters,  and  introduces  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. — Sectional  Excitement 
greatly  increased  and  intensified  by  that  Measure.  —  Notice  of  the  De 
cease  of  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster,  and  of  their  commanding  intellect 
ual  Powers  and  interesting  Traits  of  Character 1 G9 

CHAPTER  XL 

Excited  Struggle  in  Congress  over  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. — Manly 
but  ineffectual  Opposition  to  that  Bill  in  Congress. — Regret  expressed 
at  the  Disappearance  from  the  public  Scene  of  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Webster, 
and  Mr.  Calhoun. — Confident  Opinion  expressed  as  to  what  would  have 
been  Mr.  Calhoun's  Course  had  he  survived  up  to  our  Times. — Fearful 
awakening  of  sectional  Excitement  both  in  the  South  and  in  the  North 
under  the  Influence  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. — Multiplied  Scenes 
of  Blood  and  Violence  in  the  Territory  of  Kansas. — Mr.  Pierce  and  his 
Cabinet  lose  the  Confidence  of  all  Men  of  true  Nntionalitv  of  Sentiment. 


CONTENTS.  IX 

— Mr.  Pierce  defeated  in  the  Cincinnati  Democratic  Convention  by  Mr. 
Buchanan,  who  is  afterward  elected  to  the  Presidency  by  a  plurality 
Vote  over  Fremont  and  Fillmore. — Mr.  Buchanan  delivers  an  Inaugu 
ral  Address  as  President,  replete  with  national  Sentiment,  which  at 
tracts  to  him  the  Support  of  the  American  Party,  and  his  Administra 
tion  grows  overwhelmingly  popular. — He  afterward  treacherously  vio 
lates  all  his  Promises  to  the  Country  under  the  Threats  of  Southern  Se 
cession  Leaders,  and  his  Administration  suddenly  becomes  both  odious 
and  contemptible. — The  Democratic  Party  of  the  North  completely 
crushed  and  broken  down  by  the  fatal  Lecompton  Issue,  and  the  way 
surely  paved  for  the  Election  of  a  Republican  President  in  I860. — Re 
view  of  the  State  of  Parties  at  that  Period. — Some  Notice  of  the  Amer 
ican  Party  and  its  particular  Tenets. — Great  Mistake  of  the  Southern 
People  in  not  yielding  their  Support  to  Mr.  Fillmore  in  1856. — Some 
Notice  of  the  Republican  Candidates  for  President  and  Vice-President 
in  1856,  and  of  certain  curious  Scenes  which  took  place  during  tho 
short  period  of  General  Fremont's  official  Connection  with  that  Body. 
— Sketch  of  General  Baker,  one  of  the  earliest  Victims  of  the  War,  and  a 
recital  of  certain  romantic  Occurrences  connected  with  his  Residence 
in  California  and  Oregon. — Signal  Triumph  of  his  extraordinary  ora 
torical  Powers  over  popular  Excitement  and  Prejudice Page  192 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Some  farther  Notice  of  the  "Irrepressible  Conflict"  Theory. — Analysis 
of  the  Condition  of  Parties  at  the  Time  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Inaugura 
tion. — Statement  of  the  Election  Results  during  the  first  Year  of  his 
Administration.  —  Historic  Recital  of  some  important  Facts  which 
occurred  during  the  Summer  of  1857,  anterior  to  Mr.  Buchanan's  suc 
cumbing  to  the  Dictation  of  the  Secession  Leaders. — Efforts  to  reani 
mate  his  Courage  made  at  that  Period,  all  of  which  signally  failed. — 
Recital  of  Particulars  connected  with  the  Lecompton  Struggle  in  Con 
gress. — Some  Scenes,  both  amusing  and  painful,  which  at  that  time  had 
their  progress  in  Washington. — Remarkable  banqueting  Scene,  in  which 
Mr.  Seward  bore  the  principal  Part. — Last  Interview  between  Mr.  Bu 
chanan  and  the  Author,  in  which  some  startling  Revelations  were 
made 219 

A2 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

\  Conspiracy  of  certain  Senators  to  defeat  the  "  Little  Giant  of  the  West" 
in  his  supposed  presidential  Aspirations. — Signal  Triumph  of  this  Gen 
tleman  as  a  Debater  over  all  Opposition. — Opening  of  the  senatorial 
Contest  between  Mr.  Douglas  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  of  Illinois. — Extraordi 
nary  Efforts  of  Mr.  Buchanan  and  other  Individuals  of  the  Democratic 
Party  to  effect  Mr.  Douglas's  Defeat  and  secure  the  Election  of  his  Op 
ponent. — Eventual  Triumph  of  Mr.  Douglas,  who  returns  to  the  Senate 
to  undergo  Ostracism  at  the  Hands  of  senatorial  Democrats  in  Caucus 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Buchanan. — Deep  Injury  done  to  the  South 
ern  Cause  by  the  unjust  Course  pursued  toward  Mr.  Douglas,  which 
caused  many  of  this  Gentleman's  political  Supporters  in  the  North  to 
grow  lukewarm  in  the  support  of  Southern  Bights. — Special  Causes 
which  now  operated  to  produce  sectional  Excitement. — Indecent  and 
ruffianly  Assault  upon  Mr.  Sumner. — Dred  Scott  Decision. — The  South 
indiscreetly  exultant  over  it,  and  the  North  indignant. — Attempt  by 
certain  Persons  in  the  South  to  bring  about  the  reopening  of  the  Afri 
can  Slave-trade. — Important  judicial  Contest  in  Ohio  touching  the  va 
lidity  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. — Ossawatomie  Brown  upon  a  Ram 
page  in  the  Bosom  of  Virginia  as  a  radical,  political,  and  moral  Re 
former,  ready  to  shed  Oceans  of  Blood  in  defense  of  universal  Free 
dom. — Interesting  Debate  in  the  United  States  Senate  on  this  Subject. 
— Impolitic  Execution  of  Brown,  by  which  he  was  unnecessarily  made 
a  Martyr Page  24G 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Other  Causes  of  sectional  Excitement  at  this  Period. — The  Helper  Book, 
and  its   unfortunate  Discussion   in   Congress.  —  Resolutions   forced 
through  the  Senate,  mainly  though  the  Agency  of  Mr.  Davis,  of  Missis- 
*  sippi,  having  in  View  the  double  Object  of  destroying  Mr.  Douglas,  and 

dragging  the  Democratic  Party  into  an  unnational  and  aggressive  At 
titude. — Movements  of  William  L.  Yancey  in  the  Year  1859,  and  early 
in  the  Year  18GO,  having  in  View  the  breaking  up  of  the  Federal  Union 
in  the  event  of  a  Republican  President  being  elected. — Efforts  in  the 
South  to  bring  about  the  Election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  order  to  obtain 
the  desired  Object. — Democratic  Conventions  at  Charleston  and  Balti 
more  reviewed. — Leading  Incidents  of  the  Presidential  Canvass  of  I860 
and  its  Results. — Sketch  of  William  L.  Yancev  ...  ..  204 


CONTENTS.  xi 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Movements  in  the  South  looking  to  Secession. — South  Carolina  takes 
the  Lead  in  the  Execution  of  her  long-cherished  Scheme. — Adoption 
of  the  Ordinance  of  Secession  by  that  State. — Georgia  and  the  other 
Cotton  States  follow  the  Lead  of  South  Carolina. — Commendable  Ef 
forts  in  several  of  the  States  of  the  North  to  moderate  Southern  Excite 
ment  and  secure  the  yielding  of  reasonable  Concessions  to  the  slave- 
holding  Interests  of  the  South. — Tennessee  and  the  Border  States  still 
remain  firm. — Extraordinary  Message  of  Mr.  Buchanan  to  Congress  in 
the  Month  of  December,  1860,  and  its  unhappy  Effect  upon  public  Sen 
timent. — Furious  Debate  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  upon  the  Ques 
tions  pending  at  this  Crisis. — All  Efforts  at  Compromise  prove  abor 
tive. — Unwise  and  unpatriotic  Conduct  on  the  Part  of  Southern  Sena 
tors  and  Representatives  in  vacating  their  Seats  in  Congress.  Page  295 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Speculative  Views  as  to  the  self-defensive  Powers  of  all  Governments, 
and  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  particular. — View  of 
the  Circumstances  existing,  so  far  as  the  State  of  Tennessee  is  con 
cerned,  in  the  Outset  of  the  War,  and  Vindication  of  the  Conduct  of 
that  State. — View  of  the  Condition  of  Things  existing  in  Washington 
in  particular,  and  of  the  non-action  Policy  of  Mr.  Buchanan. — Notice 
of  this  Gentleman's  late  Defense  of  himself. — View  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
moderate  and  patriotic  Conduct  after  his  Election,  and  Notice  of 
Speeches  made  by  him  at  Indianapolis,  Pittsburg,  and  Philadelphia. — 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Inaugural  Speech,  and  commendatory  Remarks  there 
upon. — Admirably  patriotic  Speech  of  Mr.  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of 
Georgia,  demonstrating  the  gross  Impolicy  of  Secession. — Some  Allu 
sions  to  the  early  Movements  of  the  War,  and  a  short  Discussion  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine. — Enforcement  of  that  Doctrine  the  true  Means  of  re 
storing  the  national  Unity  and  Concord 318 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Beginning  of  the  War. — Its  gross  Impolicy. — Mr.  Davis  and  his  official 
Associates  did  not  comprehend  its  true  Dimensions. — Mr.  Davis's  sev 
eral  exultant  Speeches  after  having  been  made  President. — Striking 
Declaration  made  by  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  War,  Leroy  Pope 
Walker,  at  Montgomery,  Alabama.  —  Mr.  Lincoln's  View  of  the  phys- 


XI 1  CONTENTS. 

ical  Impracticability  of  Secession. — Philosophic  Views  of  the  Effects  of 
War  in  general,  and  of  Civil  War  in  particular. — View  of  the  existing 
Condition  of  Things  as  the  Result  of  the  late  War. — Responsible  Atti 
tude  of  President  Johnson,  and  Duty  of  all  good  Citizens  to  sustain 
him. — Short  Explanation  of  Author's  own  Attitude  in  the  beginning 
of  the  War. — The  Confederate  Provisional  Congress. — Its  extraordi 
nary  Harmony  and  Unanimity,  and  the  Causes  thereof. — View  of  the 
permanent  Confederate  Congress. — Rapid  Review  of  Mr.  Davis's  Con- 
|  duct  as  Executive  Chief. — Peace  Efforts  in  the  Confederate  Congress. 
1  — Their  signal  Failure,  and  the  Causes  thereof. — Informal  Efforts  of 
I  Author,  in  Connection  with  many  influential  Persons  of  the  South,  to 
make  Peace  in  Spite  of  Mr.  Davis,  and,  if  need  be,  by  a  Counter-revo 
lution. — Failure  of  those  Efforts,  and  probable  Causes  therefor. — Au 
thor  asks  Passport  across  the  Ocean,  which  is  granted  him. — Close  of 
the  War,  and  Remarks  thereupon Page  335 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Observations  mainly  upon  the  Facts   recited  in  the  preceding   Chap 
ters 418 

Conclusion 433 


SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 


CHAPTEE  I. 

Introductory  Remarks. — Allusion  to  the  "Irrepressible  Conflict"  Theory. 
— Direct  Issue  made  therewith. — Sectionalism. — Its  dangerous  Tend 
encies. — Geographical  Parties. — Washington's  Warning  against  them. 
— Mr.  Webster's  Remarks  upon  Sectionalism. — Author's  first  Acquaint 
ance  with  Mr.  Webster  in  1825. — Renewal  of  that  Acquaintance  twen 
ty  Years  thereafter. — Allusions  to  Mr.  Webster's  Life  and  Character. — 
Remarks  upon  his  great  Ability  as  a  Statesman  and  Orator. — His  ami 
able  Qualities  in  private  Life. — Mr.  Webster's  funeral  Notice  of  his  great 
Rival,  Mr.  Calhoun. 

IN  no  community  of  Christendom  can  the  public  mind 
be  reasonably  supposed,  at  the  present  moment,, to  be 
prepared  to  receive  with  a  fitting  respect  an  honest  and 
impartial  account  of  all  the  exciting  and  lamentable  oc 
currences  which  have  had  their  progress  on  this  conti 
nent,  and  in  the  bosom  of  our  own  country,  during  the 
last  four  years.  Various  and  conflicting  interests,  exist 
ing  to  some  extent  wheresoever  commerce  is  known  or 
free  intercourse  by  mail  has  been  provided  for,  diverse 
and  repugnant  statements,  embodied  in  massy  and  im 
posing  volumes,  in  pointed  and  glittering  editorials,  in 
gusty  and  delusive  partisan  harangues  (the  wordy  won 
ders  of  an  Jiour\  in  solemn,  didactic  discourses,  in  labored 
official  documents,  and  in  innumerable  reports  of  san 
guinary  battles,  of  obstinate  *  and,  long- continued  sieges, 


14  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

of  the  fearful  and  heartrending  devastation  of  large  and 
populous  districts,  or  brilliant  and  sudden  assaults  and 
captures  upon  land  or  water,  and  fierce  marauding  in 
cursions — a  necessary  concomitant  of  war,  and  yet  how 
shocking  and  deplorable — have  awakened  and  diffused 
such  clashing  and  intensely -cherished  prejudices  and  pre 
dilections  as  naught  would  be  of  power  to  remove,  save, 
perchance,  the  toilsome  diligence  of  such  discriminating 
writers  as  some  future  age  may  supply,  and  the  ever 
softening  and  effacing  influence  of  Time.  If  this  be  true 
in  regard  even  to  distant  nations,  how  much  more  forci 
bly  must  the  statement  just  made  be  found  applicable  to 
the  different  parts  of  our  own  country,  within  whose  ter 
ritorial  limits  all  these  momentous  events  have  been  tak 
ing  place,  and  where  all  the  multiplied  sources  of  error 
referred  to  have  had  their  original  location.  But,  even 
were  those  who  are  now  upon  the  stage  of  action,  in  our 
own  and  in  other  lands,  ever  so  ready  to  receive  the  truth 
in  relation  to  occurrences  so  irritating  and  so  recent,  there 
would  seem  to  be  but  little  reason  to  expect  that  a  suita 
ble  writer  would  be  found  to  record,  in  language  worthy 
of  general  credence  and  respect,  scenes  which  the  powers 
of  a  Livy  or  a  Tacitus  would  have  been  scarcely  able  to 
depicture,  and  of  a  nature  well  calculated  to  discompose 
even  the  philosophic  serenity  of  a  Gibbon  or  a  Hume. 
With  such  views  as  these,  and  with  no  exorbitant  con 
ception  of  my  own  ability  as  a  writer,  it  will  not  be  held 
surprising  that  I  have  chosen  to  indicate  in  advance,  by 
the  title  which  I  have  thought  proper  to  prefix  to  this 
work,  that  I  do  not  at  all  aspire  to  be  recognized  as  the 
Historian  of  the  most  momentous  Conflict  of  arms,  viewed 


AUTHOR  NO   SECTIONALISM  15 

/•  f 

in  its  various  aspects  and  bearings,  that  the  world  has 
yet  known.  In  truth,  I  shall  aim  only  to  present,  in  as 
simple  and  perspicuous  language  as  possible,  a  series  of 
remarkable  occurrences,  running  through  a  period  of 
some  twenty  years  or  more,  accompanied  by  sober  and 
impartial  delineations  of  character,  and  personal  anec 
dotes,  more  or  less  illustrative  of  public  events,  with 
some  account  of  the  rival  movements  of  parties,  and  the 
characteristic  acts  and  utterances  of  acknowledged  party 
leaders.  Having,  at  a  period  in  my  past  life  not  yet  re 
mote,  been  thrown  into  contact,  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation,  with  a  large  number  of  our  public  men  of  great 
distinction  and  influence,  and  having  held  relations  more 
or  less  familiar  with  a  few  of  the  most  eminent  among 
them,  I  am  not  without  a  hope  of  being  able  to  revive 
some  gratifying  and  instructive  reminiscences  of  illustri 
ous  personages  now  no  longer  living,  as  well  as  of  others 
yet  fortunately  surviving,  which  will  not  prove  altogeth 
er  uninteresting  to  such  as  may  glance  over  these  pages. 
It  having  been  my  fortune,  though  born  in  a  Southern 
state,  to  have  resided  for  considerable  periods  in  both  the 
great  sections  of  our  now  reconciled  country,  and  having 
contracted  the  most  delicate  and  endearing  ties,  both  so 
cial  and  domestic,  in  each  of  them,  I  dare  to  presume  that, 
in  the  execution  of  the  task  which  I  have  assumed,  I  shall 
be  able,  in  a  great  degree,  if  not  altogether,  to  avoid  the 
exhibition  of  any  thing  like  a  decided  local  lias.  I  shall 
at  once  give  notice  that  I  do  not  by  any  means  agree  in 
opinion  with  those  who  assert  that  the  gigantic  military 
struggle  from  which  we  have  but  just  emerged  was,  to 
any  considerable  extent,  the  result  of  what  has  been  so 


16  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

vociferously  bruited  as  an  "irrepressible  conflict  of  an 
tagonisms  imbedded  in  the  very  nature  of  our  hetero 
geneous  institutions ;"  and,  with  all  proper  courtesy  and 
deference,  I  shall  venture  to  make  direct  issue  with  those, 
wheresoever  they  shall  be  found,  who  undertake  to  pro 
mulgate  the  notion  that  "the  successive  compromises 
whereby"  civil  war,  with  all  its  attendant  horrors,  "  was 
so  long  put  off,"  were,  after  all,  but  "deplorable  mistakes, 
detrimental  to  our  national  character."*  I  shall,  on  the 
contrary,  endeavor  to  maintain,  more  by  an  array  of  irre 
sistible  fads  than  by  any  effort  of  over-subtle  reasoning, 
or  by  ingenious  appeals  to  long-standing  prejudices,  that 
the  fearful  domestic  troubles  in  which  our  noble  republic 
has  been  so  recently  involved  could  not  possibly  have 
arisen  but  for  the  most  unskillful  and  blundering  man 
agement  of  men  in  power — the  incessant  agitation  of  sec 
tional  factionists,  both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South,  and 
the  unwise  disregard  of  that  august  spirit  of  conciliation 
and  compromise  in  which  our  complex  frame  of  govern 
ment  is  known  to  have  had  its  origin,  and  to  the  faithful 
cultivation  of  which,  if  it  be  destined  to  endure  for  future 
ages,  it  must  undoubtedly  owe  both  its  preservation  and 
its  maintenance. 

"Without  in  the  least  degree  calling  in  question  the  pa 
triotism  or  sincerity  of  others,  I  may  be  permitted  to  say 
that  no  dogma  more  fraught  with  mischief  could  possibly 
have  been  set  afloat  among  the  American  people,  or  one 
better  calculated,  if  widely  diffused,  to  undermine  the  sa 
cred  compact  of  union  established  by  our  fathers,  than 
that  which  has  just  been  alluded  to.  Let  two  considera- 

*  Extract  from  Mr.  Greeley's  "American  Conflict." 


IRREPRESSIBLE   CONFLICT.  17 

ble  segments  or  classes  of  a  free  and  enlightened  people 
any  where  be  once  induced  conscientiously  to  believe 
that  such  an  irremovable  incompatibility  of  essential  in 
terests  exists  between  them  that  the  permanent  repose 
and  happiness  of  the  whole,  or  of  certain  of  its  parts,  will 
be  impossible,  except  by  a  great  and  fearful  sacrifice  on 
the  one  side  or  on  the  other,  and  it  is  most  obvious  that 
exciting  thoughts  and  schemes  of  separation,  and  even  of 
armed  collision,  would  not  be  very  long  in  making  them 
selves  manifest.  Such,  in  fact,  is  known  to  have  been 
the  precise  condition  of  things  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Eoman  republic,  between  the  Patricians  and  the  Plebe 
ians  ;  and  hence  certain  noted  attempts  on  the  part  of  the 
weaker  class  in  Eome,  and  the  one  which  deemed  itself 
oppressed,  to  provide  security  against  future  injuries  by 
secession  to  Mons  Sacer,  So  it  was  also  with  the  people 
of  the  American  colonies  in  the  last  century,  when,  be 
coming  convinced  that  it  was  not  at  all  consistent  with 
their  safety  and  happiness  that  they  should  remain  longer 
under  British  rule,  they  boldly  erected  the  all-inspiring 
standard  of  independence.  The  successful  propagation 
of  this  theory  of  an  "  irrepressible  conflict"  of  hostile 
forces,  in  two  different  sections  of  the  same  country,  it  is 
evident,  must  generate  "  geographical  parties  ;"  against  the 
formation  of  which,  Washington,  in  his  Farewell  Address, 
so  solemnly  and  so  pathetically  warned  his  countrymen. 
The  continued  existence  of  these  geographical  parties, 
when  once  fairly  organized,  as  our  melancholy  experi 
ence  has  now  demonstrated,  must  naturally  beget  schemes 
of  territorial  partition;  which,  however  peacefully  and 
quietly  put  in  execution,  if  resisted  on  the  part  of  those 


18  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

who  shall  chance  to  feel  that  they  would  be  deeply  in 
jured  thereby,  more  especially  if  the  latter  party  shall 
suppose  itself  to  possess  adequate  means  of  prevention, 
must  inevitably  lead  to  a  civil  war,  more  or  less  serious 
and  protracted.  And  it  is  plain  that  the  danger  of  such  a 
result  must  be  very  greatly  increased,  if,  in  addition  to 
the  influences  described,  the  opinion  should  be  given 
currency  that  the  antagonism  asserted  to  exist  is  organic 
and  permanent  in  its  character,  not  growing  out  of  inter 
ests  superficial  and  temporary  in  their  nature,  and  there 
fore  subject  to  easy  processes  of  modification  and  amelio 
ration  in  one  mode  or  another,  but  solid,  enduring,  and 
"imbedded  in  the  very  nature"  of  "institutions"  thus  sol 
emnly  adjudged  to  be  "heterogeneous."11  "Washington  and 
his  illustrious  associates  of  a  former  age  taught  no  such 
perilous  and  visionary  doctrine ;  nor  did  the  great  states 
men  who  succeeded  them  in  the  administration  of  the 
government  for  several  successive  generations  at  all  sus 
pect  the  existence  of  any  such  fatal  tendency  to  discord 
and  domestic  feud  to  be  lurking  in  the  very  vitals  of  our 
civil  system.  I  am  not  prepared  to  assert  that  this  "ir 
repressible  conflict"  theory  originated  either  in  the  North 
or  in  the  South  exclusively.  I  know  that  a  distinguished 
citizen  of  the  State  of  New  York  has  been  given  credit 
for  the  first  formal  promulgation  of  it ;  and  recent  occur 
rences  would  seem  to  indicate  that  this  gentleman  still 
firmly  adheres  to  his  well-known  declaration  on  this  sub 
ject.  Certain  it  is,  though,  that  I  have  heard  this  same 
radical  incompatibility  of  interests  between  the  Northern 
and  Southern  states  of  the  Union — between  that  portion 
of  the  republic  recognized  until  recently  as  the  slave- 


JOHN   C.  CALHOUN.  19 

holding  one,  and  that  which  was  non-slaveholding  in  its 
character — as  earnestly  urged,  and  as  elaborately  insisted 
upon  also  by  certain  well-known  sectional  politicians 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  as  it  ever  could  have 
been  by  individuals  of  the  most  extreme  opinions  on  this 
subject  to  the  north  of  that  same  mystical  parallel  of  lat 
itude.  I  only  assert  what  I  know  to  be  true  when  I  state 
that,  for  several  years  antecedent  to  his  death,  John  C. 
Calhoun,  one  of  the  most  intellectual  and  pure-minded 
men  that  has  ever  lived,  habitually  gave  expression 
among  his  friends  to  the  opinion  (which  there  is  no 
doubt  he  most  conscientiously  entertained)  that  the  slave- 
holding  states  of  the  South  and  the  free  states  of  the 
North  would  never  be  able  again  to  live  in  harmony 
with  each  other  after  the  abolition  agitation  had  been  for 
several  years  in  progress,  and  that  the  former  would 
soon  find  it  indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  their  own 
domestic  peace  and  safety  to  resort  to  the  expedient  of 
separation.  Early  in  the  eventful  year  of  1850  he  avow 
ed  to  me  and  to  certain  others,  some  of  whom  are  yet 
living,  his  own  painful  and  firmly-riveted  conviction  on 
this  subject,  and  declared,  in  language  of  extraordinary 
emphasis,  that  he  regarded  a  peaceful  withdrawal  from 
the  Union  as  altogether  practicable,  provided  its  execu 
tion  should  be  attempted  under  the  lead  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia ;  making  known  at  the  same  time  that  he  had 
already  drawn  out  a  Constitution  for  the  new  republic 
which  he  contemplated,  in  which  the  slaveholding  prin 
ciple  had  been  given  a  predominant  influence.  Once, 
while  discussing  this  interesting  matter,  he  grew  more 
enthusiastic  than  I  ever  saw  him  on  any  other  occasion, 


20  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

and  exclaimed  in  language  something  like  the  following : 
"In  looking  back  upon  the  history  of  past  ages,  I  have 
sometimes  been  disposed  to  envy  the  glory  of  such  men 
as  Brutus,  and  Cato,  and  others ;  but  if  this  project  of 
peaceful  separation  can  be  accomplished,  and  my  new 
Constitution  shall  be  adopted  by  the  people  of  the  South, 
I  shall  feel  that  I  too  will  have  done  something,  in  my 
own  day  and  generation,  to  deserve  the  gratitude  and 
veneration  of  the  friends  to  a  well-ordered  system  of  con- 
federative  freedom." 

The  truth  is,  that  between  sectional  factionists  of  the 
North  and  of  the  South,  however  conscientious  many  of 
them  doubtless  have  been  in  the  views  supported  by 
them,  and  in  the  measures  from  time  to  time  by  them 
propounded,  there  was  oftentimes  to  be_discerned  a  most 
singular  and  striking  exhibition  of  similitude  in  regard 
both  to  general  theories  of  government,  and  in  reference 
to  their  action,  in  and  out  of  Congress,  upon  several  of 
the  most  exciting  questions  which  have  ever  disturbed 
the  public  repose.  Special  evidences  in  proof  of  what 
has  now  been  asserted  will  be  hereafter  adduced.  I  pro 
pose  at  present  to  bring  forward  what  all  America  will, 
I  fancy,  deem  as  high  an  authority  as  could  well  be  cited. 
The  following  memorable  words  were  uttered  in  my 
hearing  in  the  national  Senate  in  the  month  of  July, 
1850,  when  the  celebrated  measures  of  compromise  were 
under  discussion  in  that  body,  by  one  of  the  wisest  and 
most  patriotic  statesmen,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  con 
summate  orators  that  the  world  has  known ;  whose  pro 
found  and  salutary  counsels,  had  they  been  since  that 
period  faithfully  observed  by  those  for  whose  benefit  he 


MR.  WEBSTER.  21 

then  spoke,  would  have  infallibly  saved  our  country 
from  all  those  scenes  of  unfraternal  strife,  and  fierce,  san 
guinary  conflict,  to  avert  which  was  the  most  cherished 
wish  of  his  whole  long  and  useful  public  life.  Mr.  Web 
ster,  upon  the  occasion  referred  to,  said : 

"  Sir,  this  measure  is  opposed  by  the  North,  or  some 
of  the  North,  and  by  the  South,  or  some  of  the  South ; 
and  it  has  the  remarkable  misfortune  to  encounter  resist 
ance  by  persons  the  most  directly  opposed  to  each  other 
in  every  matter  connected  with  the  subject  under  consid 
eration.  There  are  those  (I  do  -not  speak,  of  course,  of 
members  of  Congress,  and  I  do  not  desire  to  be  under 
stood  as  making  any  allusion  whatever,  in  what  I  may 
say,  to  members  of  this  House  or  of  the  other),  there  are 
those  in  the  country  who  say,  on  the  part  of  the  South, 
that  the  South  by  this  bill  gives  up  every  thing  to  the 
North,  and  that  they  will  fight  it  to  the  last ;  and  there 
are  those,  on  the  part  of  the  North,  who  say  that  this  bill 
gives  up  every  thing  to  the  South,  and  that  they  will 
fight  it  to  the  last.  And  really,  sir,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  this  disposition  to  make  battle  upon  the  bill  by 
those  who  never  agreed  in  any  thing  before  under  the 
light  of  heaven,  has  created  a  sort  of  fellowship  and  good 
feeling  between  them.  One  says,  Give  me  your  hand, 
my  good  fellow ;  you  mean  to  go  against  this  bill  to  the 
death,  because  it  gives  up  the  rights  of  the  South.  I 
mean  to  go  against  the  bill  to  the  death,  because  it  gives 
up  the  rights  of  the  North ;  let  us  shake  hands,  and  cry 
out,  'Down  with  the  bill!'  and  then  unitedly  raise  the 
shout, 

"  'A  day,  an  hour  of  virtuous  liberty, 
Is  worth  a  whole  eternity  in  bondage !' 


22  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

such  is  the  consistency  of  the  opposition  to  this  meas 
ure." 

Having  thus  incidentally  alluded  to  Mr.  Webster,  I 
shall  seize  the  opportunity  of  expressing  frankly  my  own 
opinion  of  this  remarkable  personage,  together  with  a  few 
of  the  considerations  upon  which  this  opinion  is  bottom 
ed.  It  will  fall  within  the  scope  and  compass  of  this 
volume  to  make  frequent  references  to  this  truly  con 
servative  and  patriotic  statesman;  in  consideration  of 
which  fact,  and  by  reason  of  the  additional  fact  that  one 
of  the  most  gifted  of  his  numerous  admiring  friends*  has, 
some  years  ago,  published  an  analysis  of  Mr.  Webster's 
life  and  character,  more  masterly,  perhaps,  than  any  oth 
er  production  of  that  class  which  the  present  age  has  pro 
duced,  I  shall  confine  myself  at  present  to  a  very  brief 
statement  of  my  own  recollections  of  a  man  who  has  rilled 
the  world  with  his  fame,  and  the  glories  connected  with 
whose  public  career  are  as  imperishable  even  as  those 
solid  granite  hills  of  New  England,  amid  which  he  came 
into  existence,  and  in  sight  of  which  it  was  his  fortune  to 
be  afterward  nurtured  in  all  the  arts  of  true  greatness. 
I  saw  Mr.  Webster  for  the  first  time  in  the  summer  of 
1825,  while  he  was  sojourning  for  a  few  days  at  the  cele 
brated  Saratoga  Springs,  on  his  way  to  the  Falls  of  Niag 
ara,  which  stupendous  wonder  of  Nature  he  was  then 
about  to  visit  for  the  first  time,  and  in  company  with  his 
esteemed  and  life -long  friend  Justice  Story.  An  ac 
quaintance  of  mine,  Colonel  White,  then  a  representative 
in  Congress  from  Florida,  did  me  the  honor  of  presenting 
me  to  Mr.  Webster  a  few  days  after  the  publication,  in 

*  Mr.  Choate. 


AUTHOR'S  FIRST  MEETING  WITH  MR.  WEBSTER.    23 

pamphlet  form,  of  the  first  of  his  Bunker  Hill  orations ; 
which  masterly  and  thrilling  oration  I  had  just  read  with 
weeping  eyes  and  soul  on  fire.  Never  shall  I  cease  to 
remember,  and  with  a  pleasure  not  unmixed  with  vener 
ation,  the  impression  then  made  upon  my  youthful  and 
untutored  sensibilities  by  the  solemn  and  imposing  as 
pect,  the  grave  yet  courteous  demeanor,  and  the  simple, 
cordial,  and  unassuming  conversational  tone  and  manner 
of  this  extraordinary  individual.  After  reading  the  mar 
velous  speech  to  which  I  have  alluded,  on  being  thus 
ushered  into  the  august  presence  of  him  by  whom  that 
speech  had  been  delivered,  and  after  listening  with  fixed 
and  silent  admiration  to  his  noble  colloquial  utterances, 
I  could  scarcely  feel  surprised  that  his  fellow-citizens  of 
Boston  had  named  him  "the  God-like;"  and  I  am  not 
at  all  ashamed  to  confess  that  I  do,  even  at  the  present 
moment,  hold  Daniel  Webster  to  have  been  far  better 
entitled  to  this  swelling  appellation  than  was  the  famed 
Pericles  of  old  to  that  of  "  the  Olympian,"  which  his  im 
aginative  countrymen  are  known  to  have  bestowed  on 
him.  Years  rolled  away  before  I  again  saw  Mr.  Web 
ster,  and  was  able  to  renew  my  former  personal  acquaint 
ance  with  him.  Meanwhile,  his  renown,  both  as  a  states 
man  and  orator,  had  greatly  extended.  He  had  success 
fully  contended  for  mastery  with  the  ablest  forensic  rea 
son  ers  that  had  ever  graced  the  bar  of  the  highest  judi 
cial  tribunal  of  the  country ;  he  had  delivered  numerous 
grand  and  instructive  popular  discourses,  which  Cicero, 
of  all  the  ancients,  might  alone  perchance  have  been  able 
to  equal,  and  which  neither  Burke,  nor  Bossuet,  nor  Fish 
er  Ames,  nor  Massillon  could  have  been  expected  to  sur- 


24  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

pass;  and  he  had  met  in  exciting  and  stormy  debate 
some  of  the  most  consummate  parliamentary  speakers 
that  the  country  had  produced  upon  questions  involving 
alike  the  fundamental  principles  of  all  government,  and 
the  varied  and  conflicting  interests  of  our  own  growing 
republic.  In  all  these  contests,  the  world  had  given  him 
credit  for  displaying  the  highest  oratorical  powers,  deep 
and  far-reaching  views,  and  a  knowledge  of  all  that  apper 
tains  to  the  affairs  of  a  free  and  self-governing  people,  of 
which  few  if  any  of  his  contemporaries  had  ever  shown 
themselves  to  be  possessed.  After  meeting  with  Mr. 
Webster  in  the  Senate,  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  as 
sociated  with  him  on  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs 
of  that  body,  and  to  act  as  chairman  of  the  same  commit 
tee  while  he  was  Secretary  of  State  during  Mr.  Fillmore's 
administration,  and  I  thus  enjoyed  an  opportunity  of  be 
coming  somewhat  familiar  with  the  particular  views 
which  he  entertained  touching  the  great  international 
questions  of  the  age.  I  saw  much  of  him  also  at  his  own 
hospitable  mansion,  as  well  as  in  social  life  elsewhere,  and 
I  am  now  prepared  to  declare  that  he  was,  in  my  judg 
ment,  one  of  the  few  public  men  whom  it  has  been  my 
fortune  to  know  who  did  not  suffer  some  loss  of  dignity 
upon  a  near  personal  approach.  In  all  my  intercourse 
with  him,  I  beheld  constant  and  ever-increasing  evi 
dences  of  the  purity  and  elevation  of  his  sentiments,  his 
steady  devotion  to  principle,  his  lofty  disinterestedness  of 
motive,  his  kind  and  charitable  temper,  and  his  entire  ex 
emption  from  every  thing  like  low  personal  rivalry.  I 
am  quite  certain  that  he  never  cherished  feelings  of  ran 
corous  malevolence  toward  any  human  being  in  his  life ; 


MR.  WEBSTER'S  CHARACTER.  25 

and  it  is  quite  remarkable,  that  I  never  heard  from  his 
lips  a  single  unkind  allusion  to  any  of  those  whom  he 
might  naturally  regard  as,  in  some  degree,  his  competitors 
for  political  advancement.  After  the  moment  of  heated 
conflict  had  once  passed  by,  he  seemed  always  botn  to 
forgive  and  to  forget  all  the  irritating  collisions  which 
had  occurred.  In  proof  of  the  exceeding  kindness  and 
magnanimity  of  his  nature,  I  will  cite  a  single  evidence, 
but  one  that  shall  be  conclusive.  Mr.  Calhoun  was,  of  all 
the  eminent  statesmen  who  were  in  public  life  at  the 
same  time  with  Mr.  Webster,  and  who  were  occasionally 
thrown  into  serious  and  painful  conflict  with  him,  un 
doubtedly  the  most  potential.  These  gigantic  champions 
of  opposite  and  hostile  political  creeds  were,  in  truth,  for 
a  long  period  the  veritable  Achilles  and  Hector  of  the 
Senate ;  yet,  upon  the  sudden  decease  of  Mr.  Calhoun  in 
the  summer  of  1850,  behold  what  his  truly  high-minded 
and  chivalrous  opponent  said  of  him !  ISTo  knight  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  not  Sir  Philip  Sydney  himself,  nor  the 
world -renowned  Bayard,  nor  even  the  famous  Black 
Prince,  when  holding  King  John  of  France  as  a  prisoner 
of  war,  could  have  been  expected  to  display  a  more  high 
bred  courtesy,  a  more  manly  and  tender  sympathy  to 
ward  a  former  adversary,  or  a  more  generous  oblivion  of 
former  contentions  in  arms,  than  is  evinced  by  Mr.  Web 
ster  in  the  following  beautiful  effusion.  Let  the  puny 
and  heartless  traducers  of  entombed  greatness,  whom  our 
own  unfortunate  times  have  temporarily  brought  into 
notice,  read  the  funeral  eulogy  pronounced  by  this  august 
son  of  New  England  on  the  occasion  referred  to,  and 
blush,  if  indeed  the  sense  of  shame  has  not  become  en- 

B 


26  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

tirely  extinct  in  their  cold  and  icy  bosoms,  over  the  con 
sciousness  of  their  own  deep  and  ineffaceable  dishonor. 

"I  hope  the  Senate  will  indulge  me  in  adding  a  very 
few  words  to  what  has  been  said.  My  apology  for  this 
presumption  is  the  very  long  acquaintance  which  has 
subsisted  between  Mr.  Calhoun  and  myself.  We  were 
of  the  same  age.  I  made  my  first  entrance  into  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives  in  May,  1813.  I  there  found 
Mr.  Calhoun.  He  had  already  been  a  member  of  that 
body  two  or  three  years.  I  found  him  there  an  active 
and  efficient  member  of  the  House,  taking  a  decided  part 
and  exercising  a  decided  influence  in  all  its  deliberations. 
From  that  day  to  the  day  of  his  death,  amid  all  the  strifes 
of  party  and  politics,  there  has  subsisted  between  us  al 
ways  and  without  interruption,  a  great  degree  of  person 
al  kindness. 

"Differing  widely  on  many  great  questions  respecting 
our  institutions  and  the  government  of  the  country,  those 
differences  never  interrupted  our  personal  and  social  in 
tercourse.  I  have  been  present  at  most  of  the  distin 
guished  instances  of  the  exhibition  of  his  talents  in  de 
bate.  I  have  always  heard  him  with  pleasure,  often  with 
much  instruction,  not  unfrequently  with  the  highest  de 
gree  of  admiration. 

"  Mr.  Calhoun  was  calculated  to  be  a  leader  in  whatso 
ever  association  of  political  friends  he  was  thrown.  He 
was  a  man  of  undoubted  genius  and  of  commanding  tal 
ent.  All  the  country  and  all  the  world  admit  that.  His 
mind  was  both  perceptive  and  vigorous;  it  was  clear, 
quick,  and  strong. 

"  Sir,  the  eloquence  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  or  the  manner  in 


WEBSTER'S  EULOGY  ON  CALHOUN.  27 

which  he  exhibited  his  sentiments  in  public  bodies,  was 
part  of  his  intellectual  character ;  it  grew  out  of  the  qual 
ities  of  his  mind ;  it  was  plain,  strong,  terse,  condensed, 
concise ;  sometimes  impassioned,  still  always  severe.  Ke- 
jecting  ornament,  not  often  seeking  far  for  illustration, 
his  power  consisted  in  the  plainness  of  his  propositions, 
in  the  closeness  of  his  logic,  and  in  the  earnestness  and 
energy  of  his  manner.  These  are  the  qualities,  as  I  think, 
which  have  enabled  him,  through  such  a  long  course  of 
years,  to  speak  often,  and  yet  always  command  attention. 
His  demeanor  as  a  senator  is  known  to  us  all — is  appre 
ciated,  venerated  by  us  all.  No  man  was  more  respect 
ful  to  others,  no  man  carried  himself  with  greater  deco 
rum,  no  man  with  superior  dignity.  I  think  there  is  not 
one  of  us,  when  he  last  addressed  us  from  his  seat  in  the 
Senate,  his  form  still  erect,  with  a  voice  by  no  means  in 
dicating  such  a  degree  of  physical  weakness  as  did  in  fact 
possess  him,  with  clear  tones,  and  an  impressive  and,  I 
may  say,  an  imposing  manner,  who  did  not  feel  that  he 
might  imagine  that  we  saw  before  us  a  senator  of  Eome 
survived. 

"  Sir,  I  have  not,  in  public  nor  in  private  life,  known  a 
more  assiduous  person  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  I 
have  known  no  man  who  wasted  less  of  life  in  what  is 
called  recreation,  or  employed  less  of  it  in  any  pursuits 
not  connected  with  the  immediate  discharge  of  his  duty. 
He  seemed  to  have  no  recreation,  but  the  pleasure  of  con 
versation  with  his  friends.  Out  of  the  chambers  of  Con 
gress,  he  was  either  devoting  himself  to  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge  pertaining  to  the  immediate  subject  of  the 
duty  before  him,  or  else  he  was  indulging  in  those  social 
interviews  in  which  he  so  much  delighted. 


28  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

"My  honorable  friend  from  Kentucky  (Mr.  Clay)  has 
spoken  in  just  terms  of  his  colloquial  talents.  They  cer 
tainly  were  singular  and  eminent.  There  was  a  charm 
in  his  conversation  not  often  equaled.  He  delighted  es 
pecially  in  conversation  and  intercourse  with  young  men. 
I  suppose  that  there  has  been  no  man  among  us  who  had 
more  winning  manners,  in  such  an  intercourse  and  such 
conversation,  with  men  comparatively  young,  than  Mr. 
Calhoun.  I  believe  one  great  power  of  .his  character,  in 
general,  was  his  conversational  talent.  I  believe  it  is 
that,  as  well  as  a  consciousness  of  his  high  integrity,  and 
the  greatest  reverence  for  his  talents  and  ability,  that  has 
made  him  so  endeared  an  object  to  the  people  of  the 
state  to  which  he  belonged. 

"  Mr.  President,  he  had  the  basis,  the  indispensable  ba 
sis,  of  all  high  character,  and  that  was  unspotted  integrity 
and  unimpeached  honor.  If  he  had  aspirations,  they  were 
high,  and  honorable,  and  noble.  There  was  nothing  grov 
eling,  or  low,  or  meanly  selfish,  that  came  near  the  head 
or  the  heart  of  Mr.  Calhoun.  Firm  in  his  purpose,  per 
fectly  patriotic  and  honest,  as  I  am  sure  he  was,  in  the 
principles  that  he  espoused  and  in  the  measures  that  he 
defended,  aside  from  that  large  regard  for  the  species  of 
distinction  that  conducted  him  to  eminent  stations  for  the 
benefit  of  the  republic,  I  do  not  believe  he  had  a  selfish 
motive  or  selfish  feeling.  However  he  may  have  differed 
from  others  of  us  in  his  political  opinions  or  his  political 
principles,  those  principles  and  those  opinions  will  now 
descend  to  posterity  under  the  sanction  of  a  great  name. 
He  has  lived  long  enough,  he  has  done  enough,  and  he 
has  done  it  so  well,  so  successfully,  so  honorably,  as  to 


CALHOUN — HIS  NOBLE   QUALITIES.  29 

connect  himself  for  all  time  with  the  records  of  his  coun 
try.  He  is  now  an  historical  character.  Those  of  us 
who  have  known  him  here  will  find  that  he  has  left  upon 
our  minds  and  our  hearts  a  strong  and  lasting  impression 
of  his  person,  his  character,  and  his  public  performances, 
which,  while  we  live,  will  never  be  obliterated.  We  shall 
hereafter,  I  am  sure,  indulge  in  it  as  a  grateful  recollec 
tion,  that  we  have  lived  in  his  age,  that  we  have  been  his 
contemporaries,  that  we  have  seen  him,  and  heard  him, 
and  known  him.  We  shall  delight  to  speak  of  him  to 
those  who  are  rising  up  to  fill  our  places.  And  when 
the  time  shall  come  that  we  ourselves  must  go,  one  after 
another,  to  our  graves,  we  shall  carry  with  us  a  deep 
sense  of  his  genius  and  character,  his  honor  and  integrity, 
his  amiable  deportment  in  private  life,  and  the  purity  of 
his  exalted  patriotism." 


30  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Early  colonial  Settlements  in  North  America.— Character  of  the  People 
very  nearly  identical.  —  Similitude  of  Customs,  Language,  Religion, 
Laws,  and  Mode  of  Life. — No  Conflict  of  Sentiment  then  between  the 
Colonists  of  the  North  and  South  in  regard  to  African  Slavery. — Tes 
timony  of  Mr.  Greeley  on  this  Point. — Kindly  social  and  commercial 
Intercourse  between  the  Colonists  North  and  South.  —  Their  united 
Defense  of  the  infant  American  Settlements  against  Indian  Violence 
and  the  hostile  French. — Early  Suggestion  of  a  confederate  Union  be 
tween  all  the  British  Colonies  in  North  America. — Strange  Interpreta 
tion  of  a  Portion  of  the  Language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
— Mr,  Jefferson '8  important  Statement  as  to  the  Action  of  the  Confed 
erate  Congress  in  regard  to  Slavery  at  the  Time  the  Declaration  was 
adopted. — Mr.  Webster's  important  Recital  of  historic  Facts  connected 
with  this  Subject  in  his  7th  of  March  Speech. 

THOSE  who  are  best  acquainted  with  the  early  history 
of  our  forefathers  upon  the  American  Continent  will  be 
most  inclined  to  concur  in  the  opinion  that,  though  the 
various  colonial  settlements  effected  by  them  were  made 
under  circumstances  which  upon  a  superficial  view  might 
be  regarded  as  materially  different,  and  though  the  course 
of  historic  events  in  these  settlements  was  not  uniformly 
similar,  yet  that,  in  regard  to  all  those  influences  which 
were  to  impart  a  distinctive  character  to  infant  communi 
ties,  there  were  no  such  radical  diversities  as,  to  a  philo 
sophic  mind,  would  have  been  held  worthy,  in  the  least 
degree,  of  grave  and  thoughtful  consideration.  In  all  the 
colonies  the  same  language  predominated.  In  all  of  them 
the  same  religion  prevailed,  and  in  most  of  them  the  same 


EARLY  AMERICAN  COLONISTS.  31 

form  of  that  religion.  The  same  literature  was  in  all  of 
them  the  source  of  intellectual  cultivation  and  of  refine 
ment  in  manners.  In  all  of  them  it  was  necessary  to 
employ  the  same  means  of  warding  off  the  violence  of 
the  savage  tribes  who  encompassed  them ;  of  felling  and 
displacing  the  great  trees  which  overshadowed  the  sur 
face  of  the  wilderness  in  which  their  primeval  huts  were 
established,  and  of  reducing  the  virgin  soil  to  a  state  fit 
ted  for  profitable  culture.  The  growth  of  the  various 
colonies,  whether  by  natural  increase  or  by  immigration 
from  abroad,  was  for  many  years  nearly  the  same.  The 
social  usages  and  customs  which  sprang  up  in  the  differ 
ent  settlements  were,  from  the  operation  of  similar  causes, 
very  nearly  identical.  Even  in  their  relations  with  the 
mother  country  the  same  resemblances  were  apparent; 
in  all  of  them  the  imperial  power  of  the  British  govern 
ment  was,  in  somewhat  varying  forms,  very  distinctly 
acknowledged,  and  enforced,  also,  with  a  marked  uni 
formity.  At  different  periods  while  the  colonial  condi 
tion  continued,  the  same  collisions  with  the  authority  of 
the  parent  country  occurred,  and  with  substantially  simi 
lar  results.  Even  in  relation  to  a  matter  which  some  as 
sert  to  have  supplied  grounds  for  an  essential  discrimina 
tion  among  the  residents  of  the  different  colonies — to  wit, 
ike  introduction  of  slaves  from  Africa,  it  will  be  found,  on 
examination,  that  many  of  those  who  have  most  freely 
written  and  spoken  upon  this  subject  have  been  guided 
far  more  by  fanciful  conjectures,  put  in  action  by  an  eager 
desire  of  sectional  ascendency,  than  by  a  proper  and  be 
coming  regard  for  the  deductions  of  sober  historic  truth. 
"Without  dwelling  on  a  subject  the  prominent  topics  con- 


32  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

nected,  with  which,  have  been  already  thoroughly  ex 
hausted  by  innumerable  disputants,  most  of  whom  are 
too  furious  to  be  fair,  and  too  much  interested  to  be  hon- 
,est,  I  shall  content  myself  with  quoting  a  pregnant  para 
graph  from  a  work  of  great  respectability,  which  has  re 
cently  issued  from  the  press,  and  with  the  author  of 
which  I  shall  be  always  glad  to  agree  when  I  shall  be 
able  to  do  so  without  disparagement  to  my  own  consci 
entious  convictions.  Mr.  Greeley,  in  u  The  American  Con 
flict"  expresses  himself  thus :  "  The  austere  morality  and 
democratic  spirit  of  the  Puritans  ought  to  have  kept  their 
skirts  clear  from  the  stain  of  human  bondage.  But,  be 
neath  all  their  fierce  antagonism,  there  was  a  certain  kin 
ship  between  the  disciples  of  Calvin  and  those  of  Loyola. 
Each  were  ready  to  suffer  and  die  for  God's  truth  as  they 
understood  it,  and  neither  cherished  any  appreciable  sym 
pathy  or  consideration  for  those  they  esteemed  God's  ene 
mies,  in  which  category  the  savages  of  America  and  the 
heathen  negroes  of  Africa  were  so  unlucky  as  to  be  found. 
The  Puritan  pioneers  of  New  England  were  early  involved 
in  desperate  life  or  death  struggles  with  their  aboriginal 
neighbors,  in  whom  they  failed  to  discover  those  poetic 
and  fascinating  traits  which  irradiate  them  in  the  novels 
of  Cooper  and  the  poems  of  Longfellow.  Their  experi 
ence  of  Indian  ferocity  and  treachery,  acting  upon  their 
theologic  convictions,  led  them  early  and  readily  to  the 
belief  that  these  savages,  and,  by  logical  inference,  all 
savages,  were  children  of  the  devil,  to  be  subjugated,  if 
not  extirpated,  as  the  Philistine  inhabitants  of  Canaan 
had  been  by  the  Israelites  under  Joshua.  Indian  slav 
ery,  sometimes  forbidden  by  law,  but  usually  tolerated, 


MB.  GREELEY'S   CONFESSION.  33 

if  not  entirely  approved  by  public  opinion,  was  among 
the  early  usages  of  New  England ;  and  from  this  to  ne 
gro  slavery — the  slavery  of  any  variety  of  pagan  barbar 
isms — was  an  easy  transition.  That  the  slaves  in.  the 
Eastern  colonies  were  few,  and  mainly  confined  to  the 
sea-ports,  does  not  disprove  this  statement.  The  harsh 
climate,  the  rocky  soil,  the  rugged  topography  of  New 
England,  presented  formidable,  though  not  impassable 
barriers  to  slaveholding.  Her  narrow  patches  of  arable 
soil,  hemmed  in  between  bogs  and  naked  blocks  of  gran 
ite,  were  poorly  adapted  to  cultivation  by  slaves.  The 
labor  of  the  hands  without  the  brain,  of  muscle  divorced 
from  intelligence,  would  procure  but  a  scanty  livelihood 
on  those  bleak  hills.  He  who  was  compelled  for  a  sub 
sistence  to  be  by  turns  farmer,  mechanic,  lumberman, 
navigator,  and  fisherman,  might  possibly  support  one 
slave,  but  would  be  utterly  ruined  by  half  a  dozen. 
Slaveholding  in  the  Northern  States  was  rather  coveted 
as  a  social  distinction,  a  badge  of  aristocracy  and  wealth, 
than  resorted  to  with  any  idea  of  profit  or  pecuniary  ad 
vantage." 

Under  such  circumstances  as  have  been  stated,  it  is 
certainly  not  at  all  surprising  that  constant  friendly  in 
tercourse,  both  social  and  commercial,  was  cultivated  be 
tween  the  various  American  colonies,  whether  in  the 
northern  or  southern  divisions  of  the  continent ;  that 
they  should  have  cordially  aided  each  other  in  repulsion 
of  Indian  hostilities ;  that,  under  the  advice  and  protec 
tion  of  the  parent  country,  they  should  have  sturdily  co 
operated  in  the  defense  of  all  colonial  territory  against 
invasions  from  abroad,  and  in  even  attempting  the  con- 

B2 


34  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

quest  of  adjoining  territory  belonging  to  France,  in  what 
is  now  known  as  Canada,  at  the  period  when  the  kings 
of  France  and  of  Great  Britain  were  warring  for  exclu 
sive  dominion  on  this  continent.  Nor  should  we  be  as 
tonished,  either,  to  find  that,  long  before  the  Declaration 
of  American  Independence  in  the  year  1776,  there  should 
have  been  more  than  one  attempt  to  bring  about  a  con 
federation  of  the  American  colonies  under  the  protection 
of  the  British  crown. 

It  is  sufficiently  apparent,  one  would  think,  that,  up  to 
the  era  of  our  deliverance  from  British  rule,  no  fancied 
heterogeneousness  of  institutions,  or  fixed  repugnances 
of  opinion  or  sentiment,  seriously  divided  those  whose 
posterity  were  destined  soon  to  form  a  still  closer  com 
pact  of  union,  and,  by  the  common  dangers  and  suffer 
ings  of  a  long  and  sanguinary  war,  to  become  endeared 
to  each  other  by  ties  of  the  most  solid  and  enduring  char 
acter.  Such  is  the  unconquerable  truth  of  history,  let 
him  deny  it  who  may. 

It  has  been  contended  by  some,  of  late,  that  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence  itself  asserted  a  fundamental  prin 
ciple  of  universal  application  even  at  the  time  of  its  adop 
tion,  which  was  understood  by  our  forefathers  as  drawing 
a  serious  line  of  distinction  between  those  citizens  of  the 
newly-formed  American  Union  who  were  then  friendly 
to  the  continued  existence  of  African  slavery,  and  those 
who  were  unfriendly  to  it ;  and  as  the  greater  part  of  the 
former  have  been  constantly  located  in  the  states  of  the 
South,  it  has  been  sagely  inferred  that  a  permanent  con 
flict  of  sentiment  between  slaveholders  and  non-slave 
holders  was  thus  recognized  from  the  beginning,  and 


THOMAS  JEFFEKSON.  35 

among  those  who  had  just  declared  themselves  one  peo 
ple,  both  in  peace  and  in  war.  Persons  who  undertake  to 
make  good  this  position  assume  that,  when  the  authors 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  declared  "all  men  are 
created  equal,"  they  meant  to  include  the  sons  of  Africa 
as  well  as  those  of  European  origin ;  and  these  contro 
versialists  do  thus  contend,  in  the  face  of  the  undeniable 
fact,  that  no  such  interpretation  of  the  instrument  was 
either  suggested  or  thought  of  any  where  in  Christendom 
until  within  a  few  years  past;  and  notwithstanding  the 
facts  that  the  efforts  of  the  Emancipationists  were  not, 
until  very  recently,  professedly  founded  upon  any  such 
overstrained  view ;  that  language  substantially  similar  is 
used  in  the  Virginia  Bill  of  Eights,  penned  by  the  cel 
ebrated  George  Mason,  one  of  the  most  open  and  strenu 
ous  supporters  of  slavery  who  participated  in  the  forma 
tion  of  the  Federal  Constitution ;  and  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
himself,  the  acknowledged  draughtsman  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  though  friendly  to  the  adoption  of 
a  system  of  gradual  emancipation,  never  in  any  way  indi 
cated  that  the  universal  freedom  spoken  of  was  absolute 
ly  provided  for  in  this  important  document,  or  that  such 
a  thing  was  even  thought  of  or  suggested.  The  truth  is, 
that  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  works,  p.  170,  vol.  i.,  asserts  the 
fact  that  there  were  persons  in  Congress  at  the  time,  both 
from  the  North  and  from  the  South,  who  were  not  only 
not  hostile  to  the  continuation  of  African  slavery  as  then 
existing,  but  who  were  unwilling  to  embody  in  the  Dec 
laration  any  language  strongly  denunciatory  even  of  the 
continued  importation  of  slaves  from  the  coast  of  Africa; 
his  words  on  this  point  being  as  follows:  " The  clause,  too, 


36  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

reprobating  the  enslaving  the  inhabitants  of  Africa  was 
struck  out  in  complaisance  to  South  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
who  never  attempted  to  restrain  the  importation  of  slaves, 
and  who,  on  the  contrary,  still  wished  to  continue  it.  Our 
Northern  brethren  also,  I  believe,  felt  a  little  tender  under 
those  censures ;  for,  though  their  people  had  few  slaves 
themselves,  yet  they  had  been  pretty  considerable  carriers 
of  them  to  others." 

The  conclusion  to  which  the  mind  is  irresistibly  driven 
by  the  mass  of  evidence  adduced  is,  that  the  American 
people,  at  this  early  period  of  their  history,  were  in  all  re 
spects  sufficiently  homogeneous,  both  in  regard  to  local  in 
terests  and  in  relation  to  all  questions  likely  to  arise  un 
der  any  common  government  which  they  might  choose 
thereafter  to  establish,  as  to  justify  a  reasonable  hope  of 
reciprocal  kindness  and  permanent  concord  between  them. 
So  far  is  it,  indeed,  from  being  true  that  any  such  "an 
tagonisms  imbedded  in  the  very  nature  of  our  hetero 
geneous  institutions"  then  existed,  as  the  accomplished  au 
thor  of  "The  American  Conflict"  has  so  emphatically  as 
serted,  that  it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that,  strictly  speak 
ing,  African  slavery  did  not  any  where  at  that  period  ex 
ist  in  an  institutional  form ;  in  relation  to  which  point  I 
shall  again  cite  the  language  of  one  who  will  ever  be  re 
garded  as  the  highest  authority,  in  reference  to  a  question 
of  this  nature,  by  all  men  whose  minds  are  not  altogether 
given  up  to  sectional  prejudice  or  party  bigotry.  Mr. 
"Webster,  in  his  speech  delivered  in  the  national  Senate 
in  the  year  1848,  upon  the  "EXCLUSION  OF  SLAVERY 
FROM  THE  TERRITORIES,"  uses  the  following  language  i 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  recognizes  it 


1776-1789.  37 

(slavery)  as  an  existing  fact,  an  existing  relation  between 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Southern  States.  I  do  not  call  it 
an  institution,  because  that  term  is  not  applicable  to  it ; 
for  that  term  seems  to  imply  a  voluntary  establishment. 
When  I  first  came  here,  it  was  a  matter  of  frequent  re 
proach  to  England,  the  mother  country,  that  slavery  had 
been  established  upon  the  colonies  by  her  against  their 
consent,  and  that  which  is  now  considered  a  .cherished 
institution  was  then  regarded  as,  I  will  not  say  an  evil, 
but  an  entailment  on  the  colonies  by  the  policy  of  the 
mother  country  against  their  wishes" 

The  state  of  public  sentiment  in  regard  to  slavery  in 
the  colonies  remained  the  same  throughout  the  war  of 
the  Eevolution.  With  a  few  exceptions  here  and  there, 
there  were  none  in  the  South  who  were  anxious  to  extend 
its  existence  and  influence,  and  there  were  as  few  in  the 
North  who  were  inclined  to  interfere  with  or  complain 
of  its  presence  wheresoever  it  had  already  taken  root ;  so 
that,  when  the  men  of  '76  began  to  take  measures  for 
their  future  safety  in  the  separate  and  independent  con 
dition  which  they  had  deemed  it  wise  to  assume,  they 
were  prepared,  with  the  fullest  deliberation,  to  adopt  ar 
ticles  of  confederation  which  in  terms  provided  for  the 
establishment  of  a  "  perpetual  Union"  between  those  who 
had  then  become  fraternally  associated  in  the  war  against 
the  mother  country.  ISTor  is  it  apparent  that  there  was 
any  material  change  in  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  any 
portion  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  regard  to 
African  Slavery  up  to  the  year  1789,  when  the  Federal 
Constitution  was  adopted.  In  proof  of  this  fact,  I  shall 
again  lean  upon  the  authority  of  Mr.  Webster,  whose  ac- 


38  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

curacy  in  relation  to  all  matters  of  this  kind  is  so  well 
established  that  I  am  not  aware  that  any  deliberately  ut 
tered  statement  of  his  touching  points  of  disputed  Amer 
ican  history  has  ever  been  by  any  one  directly  called  in 
question.  In  that  memorable  7th  of  March  speech  which 
he  delivered  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  for  "  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union,"  and  which,  at  the  time  of 
its  being  pronounced,  as  I  well  recollect,  awakened  sen 
timents  of  respect  and  gratitude  among  conservative  and 
enlightened  patriots  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  republic — in  that  speech,  for  the  delivery  of  which 
Mr.  Calhoun  is  known,  on  his  dying  bed,  to  have  thanked 
him  in  the  most  solemn  and  formal  manner — Mr.  "Web 
ster  thus  explicitly  covers  the  ground  which  I  am  at 
present  discussing :  "  Let  us,  therefore,  consider  for  a  mo 
ment  what  was  the  state  of  sentiment  North  and  South 
in  regard  to  slavery  at  the  time  this  Constitution  was 
adopted.  A  remarkable  change  has  taken  place  since ; 
but  what  did  the  wise  and  great  men  of  all  parts  of  the 
country. think  of  slavery  then?  In  what  estimation  did 
they  hold  it  at  the  time  when  this  Constitution  was  adopt 
ed  ?  It  will  be  found,  sir,  if  we  will  carry  ourselves  by 
historical  research  back  to  that  day,  and  ascertain  men's 
opinions  by  authentic  records  still  existing  among  us, 
that  there  was  then  no  diversity  of  opinion  between  the 
North  and  the  South  upon  the  subject  of  slavery.  It 
will  be  found  that  both  parts  of  the  country  held  it  equal 
ly  an  evil — a  moral  and  political  evil.  It  will  not  be 
found  that,  either  at  the  North  or  at  the  South,  there  was 
much,  though  there  was  some,  invective  against  slavery 
as  inhuman  and  cruel.  The  great  ground  of  objection  to 


ME.  WEBSTER  ON  THE   IRREPRESSIBLE   CONFLICT.     39 

it  was  political;  that  it  weakened  the  social  fabric ;  that, 
taking  the  place  of  free  labor,  society  became  less  strong 
and  labor  less  productive ;  and  therefore  we  find  from  all 
the  eminent  men  of  the  time  the  clearest  expression  of 
their  opinion  that  slavery  is  an  evil.  They  ascribed  its 
existence  here,  not  without  truth,  and  not  without  some 
acerbity  of  temper  and  force  of  language,  to  the  injurious 
policy  of  the  mother  country,  who,  to  favor  the  naviga 
tor,  had  entailed  these  evils  upon  the  colonies.  I  need 
hardly  refer,  sir,  particularly  to  the  publications  of  the 
day.  They  are  matters  of  history  on  the  record.  The 
eminent  men,  the  most  eminent  men,  and  nearly  all  the 
conspicuous  politicians  of  the  South,  held  the  same  senti 
ments — that  slavery  was  an  evil,  a  blight,  a  scourge,  and 
a  curse.  There  are  no  terms  of  reprobation  of  slavery 
so  vehement  in  the  North  at  that  day  as  in  the  South. 
The  North  was  not  so  much  excited  against  it  as  tho 
South ;  and  the  reason  is,  I  suppose,  that  there  was  much 
less  of  it  at  the  North,  and  the  people  did  not  see,  or 
think  they  saw,  the  evils  so  prominently  as  they  were 
seen,  or  thought  to  be  seen,  at  the  South." 


40  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 


GHAPTEE  III. 

Continuation  of  the  same  Subject. — Cession  of  Northwestern  Territory  by 
Virginia  and  other  States  in  1784. — Ordinance  of  1787. — Federal  Con 
vention. — Correlative  and  contemporaneous  Action  of  that  Body  and 
of  the  Confederate  Congress  upon  the  Subject  of  African  Slavery. — No 
Conflict  worth  mentioning  then  existed  between  the  States  of  the  North 
and  the  South  in  regard  to  African  Slavery. — Action  of  Congress  upon 
Abolition  Petitions  in  1790. — Congressional  Resolution  on  the  Subject 
of  non-interference  with  Slavery  in  the  States  by  the  general  Govern 
ment  for  many  Years  faithfully  observed  in  the  North. — Mr.  "Webster's 
uncontradicted  Statement  on  this  Subject  in  the  Debate  between  Mr. 
Hayne  and  himself. — Washington's  Administration. — Election  of  John 
Adams  ;  his  stormy  Administration. — Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison, 
and  Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798,  '9. — Nullification  and 
Secession  growing  out  of  these. — John  C.  Calhoun. — Confederate  Con 
stitution  professedly  based  upon  the  absolute  Sovereignty  of  the  States. 
— This  Principle  shamefully  abandoned  by  the  Confederate  Government 
itself. — Successive  Administrations  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Madison,  and 
Mr.  Monroe. — Rise  of  the  Missouri  Question,  and  violent  Agitation  con 
sequent  thereupon. — Wise  and  salutary  Compromise  of  that  Question. 
— Remarks  upon  the  Value  of  legislative  Compromises  in  general,  with 
Mr.  Calhoun's  Views  of  the  same. 

THERE  are  one  or  two  remarkable  facts  in  addition  to 
be  brought  forward  in  support  of  this  view  of  the  sub 
ject,  which  I  will  now  concisely  state. 

In  the  year  1784,  Virginia  and  other  states  ceded  to 
the  United  States  all  the  territory  northwest  of  the'  Ohio 
Eiver.  In  the  year  1787,  the  celebrated  ordinance  was 
adopted  in  the  Congress  then  holding  its  session  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  by  which  slavery  was  forever  excluded 


ORDINANCE   OF  1787.  41 

from  the  whole  of  that  vast  dominion.  At  the  very  mo 
ment  of  its  adoption,  the  Federal  Convention,  sitting  at 
the  time  in  Philadelphia,  was  engaged  in  the  considera 
tion  of  the  subject  of  slavery  in  its  various  aspects.  Con 
stant  intercourse,  by  mail  and  otherwise,  was  going  on 
between  these  two  great  commercial  marts.  Some  of  the 
most  eminent  members  of  Congress  were  likewise  mem 
bers  of  the  Convention,  and  were  of  course  sometimes  en 
gaged  in  the  deliberations  of  one  of  these  bodies,  and 
sometimes  in  those  of  the  other.  The  ordinance  was 
unanimously  adopted,  every  Southern  member  present 
and  every  Northern  member  voting  for  it.  With  such 
facts  staring  us  in  the  face,  surely  he  would  be  a  bold 
man,  and  far  more  bold  than  discreet,  who  would  assert 
that  at  this  memorable  period  in  American  annals  any 
serious  antagonism,  either  of  sentiment  or  of  policy,  in  re 
gard  to  slavery,  was  apparent.  But  other  evidence  in 
corroboration  is  easily  adducible.  In  the  Federal  Consti 
tution  under  which  we  now  live,  two  other  points  were 
distinctly  and  definitively  settled:  1st.  Provision  was 
made  for  the  prospective,  not  the  immediate  prohibition 
of  the  African  slave-trade — that  is  to  say,  Congress  was, 
by  the  clearest  implication,  empowered  to  pass  laws  for 
the  suppression  of  this  nefarious  traffic  by  the  clause 
which  provides  that  no  legislation  by  this  body  for  the 
purpose  specified  should  take  place  anterior  to  the  year 
1808.  2d.  The  Convention,  in  language  to  which,  until 
recently,  only  one  interpretation  has  been  any  where  af 
fixed,  not  only  guaranteed  to  the  states  wherein  slavery 
then  existed  the  right  to  regulate  it  according  to  their 
own  discretion,  without  any  foreign  interference  whatev- 


42  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

er,  but  moreover  guaranteed  in  a  manner  deemed  at  the 
time  sufficiently  explicit,  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves  to 
the  service  of  their  recognized  masters. 

No  moon-struck  political  philosopher  then  undertook 
to  declare  that  the  constitutional  clause  guaranteeing  to 
each  of  the  states  a  "  republican  form  of  government" 
was  designed  by  its  framers  to  provide  for  the  universal 
manumission  of  bondmen  and  bondwomen  of  African  de 
scent. 

I  now  assert,  what  no  fair-minded  man  will  deny,  that 
the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  states  still  choosing  to  re 
tain  it  did  not,  for  many  years  after  the  foundation  of 
the  present  government,  become  a  source  of  excitement 
and  unbrotherly  feeling.  The  injunctions  of  the  Consti 
tution  were  every  where  understood  in  the  same  way, 
and  were  every  where  faithfully  observed.  A  few  abo 
lition  petitions  were  sent  forward  by  a  portion  of  the  in 
habitants  of  Pennsylvania  to  the  first  Congress,  the  ap 
pearance  of  which  produced  no  serious  irritation,  and 
these  petitions  were  at  once  quietly  disposed  of  and  for 
gotten,  but  not  until  the  adoption  of  the  following  im 
portant  resolution : 

"  Resolved,  That  Congress  have  no  authority  to  inter 
fere  in  the  emancipation  of  slaves,  or  in  the  treatment  of 
them  in  any  of  the  states ;  it  remaining  with  the  several 
states  alone  to  provide  rules  and  regulations  therein, 
which  humanity  and  true  policy  may  require." 

For  many  years,  and,  indeed,  up  to  the  year  1835, 
slavery  in  the  South  did  not  become  a  subject  of  unkind 
discussion  any  where. 

Justice  demands  the  admission  that,  up  to  a  period 


WEBSTER  IN  DEFENSE   OF  THE  NORTH.  43 

comparatively  recent,  the  spirit  of  this  resolution  was 
most  faithfully  adhered  to ;  so  that  Mr.  Webster  was  per 
fectly  justified  in  what  fell  from  his  lips  on  this  subject 
in  the  memorable  debate  in  the  United  States  Senate  be 
tween  himself  and  Mr.  Hayne,  when  he  said,  referring  to 
the  resolution  above  cited, 

"  The  fears  of  the  South,  whatever  fears  they  might 
have  entertained,  were  allayed  and  quieted  by  this  early 
decision ;  and  so  remained,  till  they  were  excited  afresh, 
without  cause,  but  for  collateral  and  indirect  purposes. 
When  it  became  necessary,  or  was  thought  so,  by  some 
political  persons,  to  find  an  unvarying  ground  for  the  ex 
clusion  of  Northern  men  from  confidence  and  from  lead 
in  the  affairs  of  the  republic,  then,  and  not  till  thent  the 
cry  was  raised,  and  the  feeling  industriously  excited,  that 
the  influence  of  Northern  men  in  the  public  councils 
would  endanger  the  relation  of  master  and  slave.  For 
myself,  I  claim  no  other  merit  than  that  this  gross  and 
enormous  injustice  toward  the  whole  North  has  not 
wrought  upon  me  to  change  my  opinions,  or  my  political 
conduct.  I  hope  I  am  above  violating  my  principles, 
even  under  the  smart  of  injury  and  false  imputations. 
Unjust  suspicions  and  undeserved  reproach,  whatever 
pain  I  may  experience  from  them,  will  not  induce  me,  I 
trust,  nevertheless,  to  overstep  the  limits  of  constitutional 
duty,  or  to  encroach  on  the  rights  of  others.  The  domes 
tic  slavery  of  the  South  I  leave  where  I  find  it — in  the 
hands  of  their  own  governments.  It  is  their  affair,  not 
mine.  Nor  do  I  complain  of  the  peculiar  effect  which 
the  magnitude  of  that  population  has  had  in  the  distribu 
tion  of  power  under  this  Federal  government.  We  know, 


44  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

sir,  that  the  representation  of  the  states  in  the  other  House 
is  not  equal.  We  know  that  great  advantage,  in  that 
respect,  is  enjoyed  by  the  slaveholding  states ;  and  we 
know,  too,  that  the  intended  equivalent  for  that  advan 
tage,  that  is  to  say,  the  imposition  of  direct  taxes  in  the 
same  ratio,  has  become  merely  nominal — the  habit  of  the 
government  being  almost  invariably  to  collect  its  revenue 
from  other  sources  and  in  other  modes.  Nevertheless, 
I  do  not  complain,  nor  would  I  countenance  any  move 
ment  to  alter  this  arrangement  of  representation.  It  is 
the  original  bargain,  the  compact:  let  it  stand;  let  the 
advantage  of  it  be  fully  enjoyed.  The  Union  itself  is  too 
full  of  benefit  to  be  hazarded  in  propositions  for  changing 
its  original  basis.  I  go  for  the  Constitution  as  it  is,  and  for 
the  Union  as  it  is.  But  I  am  resolved  not  to  submit  in 
silence  to  accusations,  either  against  myself  individually 
or  against  the  North,  wholly  unfounded  and  unjust — ac 
cusations  which  impute  to  us  a  disposition  to  evade  the 
constitutional  compact,  and  to  extend  the  power  of  the 
government  over  the  internal  laws  and  domestic  condi 
tion  of  the  states.  All  such  accusations,  wherever  and 
whenever  made,  all  insinuations  of  the  existence  of  any 
such  purposes,  I  know  and  feel  to  be  groundless  and  in 
jurious.  And  we  must  confide  in  Southern  gentlemen 
themselves ;  we  must  trust  to  those  whose  integrity  of 
heart  and  magnanimity  of  feeling  will  lead  them  to  a  de 
sire  to  maintain  and  disseminate  truth,  and  who  possess 
the  means  of  its  diffusion  with  the  Southern  public  ;  we 
must  leave  it  to  them  to  disabuse  that  public  of  its  preju 
dices.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  for  my  own  part,  I  shall 
continue  to  act  justly,  whether  those  toward  whom  jus- 


ADMINISTBATIONS  OF  WASHINGTON  AND  ADAMS.    45 

tice  is  exercised  receive  it  with  candor  or  with  con 
tumely." 

Nothing  can  be  more  undeniable  than  the  proposition 
that,  during  the  eight  years'  administration  of  "Washing 
ton,  there  was  not  in  existence  any  where  what  has  since 
become  so  mischievously  known  as  a  sectional  party  or 
ganization,  though  much  opposition  was  in  various  quar 
ters  presented  to  the  measures  of  policy  recommended  by 
this  most  venerated  of  all  our  presidents.  That  this  op 
position  was  mainly  of  a  factious  and  reprehensible  char 
acter  can  not  now  be  doubted,  and  it  would  seem  to  have 
owed  its  origin  in  a  considerable  degree  to  the  eager  de 
sire  entertained  by  certain  ambitious  statesmen  to  secure 
their  own  advancement  to  the  highest  official  position 
known  to  our  form  of  government  *to  the  exclusion  of 
others  whom  they  suspected  of  possessing  a  larger  share 
than  themselves  of  the  confidence  and  friendly  wishes  of 
the  exalted  personage  who  was  even  then  preparing  to 
return  to  private  life.  The  election  of  John  Adams,  of 
Massachusetts,  to  the  Presidency,  and  of  Thomas  Jeffer 
son,  of  Virginia,  to  the  Yice  Presidency  of  the  United 
States,  would  appear  to  prove  conclusively  that  sectional 
jealousies  had  not  yet  gained  much  strength  in  either  of 
the  two  great  divisions  of  the  republic.  The  passage  of 
the  Alien  and  Sedition  Acts,  during  the  administration 
of  the  elder  Adams,  and  the  questions  connected  with 
the  then  anticipated  war  with  France,  furnished  a  plausi 
ble  occasion  for  the  array  of  opposition  to  the  new  ad 
ministration,  and  supplied  an  opportunity  far  too  tempt 
ing  to  be  passed  by  of  calling  into  existence  a  party  or 
ganization  which,  under  proper  tutelage  and  training,  it 


46  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBPIS. 

was  hoped  might  be  of  sufficient  power  to  prevent  the 
election  of  the  then  incumbent  for  a  second  presidential 
term,  and  secure  the  elevation  in  his  stead  of  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  statesmen,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most 
astute  and  skillful  political  managers  that  has  yet  made 
his  appearance  any  where  upon  the  public  stage.  With 
a  view  to  attaining  the  interesting  end  then  held  in  view, 
it  was  necessary  that  steps  should  be  immediately  taken 
to  aggregate  all  the  elements  of  political  opposition  in 
one  cohesive  and  potential  mass,  that  the  same  might  be 
wielded  with  adequate  efficacy  against  those  who  were 
then  seated  in  the  highest  stations  of  Federal  trust. 
Hence  the  adroit  preparation  of  the  celebrated  Virginia 
and  Kentucky  Eesolutions  of  1798,  '9,  the  former  of  which 
are  now  known  to  have  been  drawn  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 
and  transmitted  to  certain  trusted  political  friends  of  his 
in  Kentucky,  while  the  latter  were  drafted  by  Mr.  Madi 
son,  under  the  counsels  of  the  same  distinguished  person 
age  (always  recognized  by  the  former  thereafter  as  his 
veritable  political  Magnus  Apollo),  and  placed  in  the 
willing  and  ever  facile  hands  of  the  celebrated  John  Tay 
lor,  of  Caroline,  for  presentation  to  the  Virginia  Legisla 
ture.  I  have  not  time  now  to  analyze  either  of  these 
famous  sets  of  resolutions,  nor  have  I  the  smallest  incli 
nation  to  do  so.  They  answered  admirably  well  the  pur 
poses  for  which  they  had  been  originally  fabricated  ;  and 
though  the  dogmas  embodied  in  these  resolutions  were 
not  sufficiently  fortunate  to  find  general  sanction  in  the 
co-states  of  the  Union,  yet  they  undoubtedly  constituted, 
in  a  great  degree,  the  basis  upon  which  that  great  polit 
ical  party  was  then  brought  into  existence,  which  was 


VIRGINIA  AND   KENTUCKY  RESOLUTIONS.  47 

soon  to  raise  to  the  presidency  three  eminent  personages 
in  succession,  all  of  whom  will  go  down  to  future  gener 
ations  as  representatives  of  a  school  of  politics  which 
owes  its  origin  and  long-retained  ascendency  mainly  to 
the  subtle  and  prolific  genius  of  him  to  whom  his  numer 
ous  admirers  have  been  long  accustomed  to  refer  as  "  the 
sage  of  Monticello."  That  the  fearful  doctrine  of  nullifi 
cation,  which  was  more  than  twenty  years  subsequent  to 
this  period  so  imposingly  blazoned  forth  to  the  world  by 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  enthusiastic  political  disciples,  and 
that  of  secession  likewise,  which  has  been  recently  sub 
jected  to  the  severest  of  all  earthly  tests,  may  be  directly 
traced  to  these  same  resolutions,  though  perchance  not 
set  forth  in  either  of  them  with  all  the  precision  and 
clearness  that  an  Aristotle  or  a  Locke  would  have  re 
quired,  no  discerning  and  unprejudiced  man  will  be 
much  inclined  to  dispute.  That  either  set  of  these  reso 
lutions  contains  sound  and  salutary  principles,  and  is  in 
strict  unison  with  the  Constitution  framed  by  our  fathers, 
few,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  will  be  hereafter  heard  to  as 
sert.  It  is  certainly  not  a  little  remarkable  that  Mr.  Mad 
ison,  who,  in  the  Federal  Convention,  was  the  close  ally 
of  Hamilton  and  Governeur  Morris  in  claiming  for  the 
new  government  which  he  was  aiding  to  build  up  pow 
ers  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  practical  enforcement 
either  of  nullification  or  secession,  and  who  had  said  on 
one  occasion,  according  to  his  own  report  of  the  matter, 
that  he  "  was  of  opinion,  in  the  first  place,  that  there  was 
less  danger  of  encroachment  from  the  general  govern 
ment  than  from  the  state  governments ;  and,  in  the  sec 
ond  place,  that  the  mischiefs  from  the  encroachments 


48  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

would  be  less  fatal,"  should  have  not  only  consented  to 
draw  up  the  Virginia  Eesolutions  of  '98,  but  should  have 
also  agreed  to  be  the  draftsman,  one  year  later,  of  an 
elaborate  report  prepared  expressly  for  the  purpose  of 
explaining  and  enforcing  these  same  resolutions.  It  is 
true  that  in  after  life  he  disavowed  any  intention  on  this 
occasion  to  yield  his  sanction  either  to  nullification  or  se 
cession,  and  I  have  certainly  no  inclination  either  to  call 
in  question  the  sincerity  of  this  eminent  personage,  or  to 
accuse  him  of  gross  forgetfulness  as  to  the  operations  of 
his  own  clear  and  well-balanced  intellect ;  but  I  repeat 
that  the  language  of  his  resolutions,  as  well  as  those 
drawn  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  already  noticed,  must  be  re 
garded  as  inculcating  all  the  perilous  doctrines  now  rec 
ognized  as  specially  appertaining  to  the  South  Carolina 
school  of  politicians.  However  objectionable  these  doc 
trines  may  be  in  practice,  I  am  not  aware  that  their  pro 
mulgation,  at  the  close  of  the  last  century,  in  the  manner 
described,  had  the  effect  of  calling  into  action  feelings  of 
sectional  jealousy,  or  of  impressing  upon  the  public  mind 
in  either  section  sentiments  of  acerbity,  alienation,  or  dis 
trust.  It  is  indeed  probable  that  the  effect  of  the  excit 
ing  struggle  for  political  ascendency  in  1801  was  chiefly 
to  cause  the  depositories  of  Federal  power  to  be  a  little 
more  on  their  guard  against  the  perpetration  of  encroach 
ments  on  the  reserved  rights  of  the  states  and  people 
than  they  might  otherwise  have  been,  and  that,  in  point 
of  fact,  it  may  in  this  way  have  contributed  rather  to  pre 
vent  than  to  instigate  collisions  calculated  to  endanger 
the  domestic  peace. 

I  can  not  well  refrain  from  remarking  here,  in  passing, 


STATES-RIGHT  THEORY  REPUDIATED  AT  RICHMOND.    49 

that,  during  the  four  years  just  elapsed,  the  Southern 
States  of  the  Union  have  had  the  most  conclusive  evi 
dence  supplied  to  them,  and  in  forms  eminently  impress 
ive  in  every  way,  of  the  utter  futility  and  worthlessness 
of  all  the  ultra  states-rights  governmental  theories;  since, 
in  less  than  a  twelve-month  after  a  Constitution  had  been 
agreed  upon  at  Montgomery,  framed  especially  with  a 
view  to  indicating  the  intention  of  its  framers  to  set  forth 
and  promulgate  to  all  the  world  a  "compact  among  sov 
ereign  states,"  to  which  compact  each  of  said  states  should 
be  recognized  as  having  "  acceded  as  a  state,  its  co-states 
forming,  as  to  itself,  the  other  party;"  providing,  too, 
that  the  "government  created"  by  said  compact  should 
not  be  "the  exclusive  or  final  judge  of  the  extent  of 
powers  delegated  to  itself;"  and  providing  still  farther, 
that  "as  in  all  other  cases  of  compact  among  powers 
having  no  common  judge,  each  party"  should  have  "a 
right  to  judge  for  itself,  as  well  of  infractions  as  of  the 
mode  and  manner  of  redress ;"  since,  I  repeat,  in  less  than 
a  twelve-month  after  this  same  boasted  states-right  Con 
stitution  was  put  in  operation,  its  very  framers  notorious 
ly,  and  in  spite  of  all  remonstrances,  succeeded  in  consol 
idating  all  governmental  power  in  the  central  agency  at 
Richmond,  and,  upon  the  stale  plea  of  military  necessity, 
shamelessly  trod  under  foot  all  the  reserved  rights  of  the 
states  and  people,  and  organized  an  irresponsible  military 
despotism  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  Ancient  Dominion, 
as  harsh  and  grinding  in  its  character  as  has  ever  hereto 
fore  existed  in  any  age  of  the  world.  On  this  subject  I 
shall  in  due  season  bring  forward  such  danining  evi 
dences  as  will  profoundly  shock  the  sensibilities  of  all 

C 


50  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

the  friends  of  orderly  and  well-regulated  government, 
and  all  the  honest  upholders  of  true  constitutional  liberty. 

Of  the  intermediate  period  which  elapsed  between  the 
inauguration  of  Mr.  Jefferson  as  President,  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1801,  and  the  year  1819,  when  the  celebrated 
Missouri  question  shook  the  republic  to  its  centre,  I  have 
only  to  observe  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  period  of 
excitement  which  intervened  when  the  Embargo  meas 
ure  was  upon  its  trial,  and  the  war  of  1812  with  Great 
Britain  was  in  progress,  the  country,  and  every  portion 
of  it,  enjoyed  an  almost  halcyon  repose.  However  fierce 
may  have  been  the  denunciations  of  the  Embargo  policy 
in  certain  quarters,  as  well  in  Congress  as  out  of  it,  what 
ever  insane  and  indecent  menaces  may  have  been  fulmi 
nated  by  Hartford  Convention  zealots,  and  others  of  a 
similar  complexion,  the  tranquillity  of  the  republic  was 
at  no  time  dangerously  disturbed ;  the  waves  of  popular 
excitement  were  again  and  quickly  calmed  into  a  state 
of  complete  serenity,  and  all  angry  and  unkind  feeling 
was  seen  once  more  to  disappear.  Never  were  any  peo 
ple  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  more  happy,  and,  to  all  appear 
ance,  a  more  assured  state  of  domestic  quietude  than  were 
our  honored  fellow-countrymen  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1817.  This  period  of  our  history  is  borne  in  pleasant 
recollection  by  persons  who  still  survive,  and  continues, 
to  some  extent,  yet  to  be  referred  to  by  them  as  "  the 
era  of  good  feeling." 

But  soon  came  the  Missouri  struggle,  that  "fire-bell  of 
the  night"  as  Mr.  Jefferson  figuratively  entitles  it.  Upon 
this  oft-diseussed  topic  I  shall  here  only  hazard  a  few 
suggestions,  and  gladly  would  I  refrain  from  alluding  to 


MISSOURI   STRUGGLE.  51 

it  altogether,  could  I  do  so  consistently  with  the  faithful 
execution  of  the  task  which  I  have  assumed.  The  his 
toric  details  which  belong  to  this  famous  contest  are  al 
ready,  indeed,  sufficiently  well  known  to  most  of  those 
who  may  glance  over  these  pages,  and  recent  occurrences 
have  rendered  it  altogether  impossible  for  men  even  of 
ordinary  intelligence  to  avoid  some  little  acquaintance 
with  them. 

The  principal  facts  are  capable  of  being  concisely 
stated  as  follows :  The  people  of  the  Missouri  Territory, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1818,  memorialized  Con 
gress  for  its  admission  into  the  Federal  Union  as  a  state. 
This  memorial  was  at  first  favorably  received,  and  a  bill 
for  the  admission  of  the  new  state  was  quickly  reported 
to  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  from  the  appropriate 
committee  in  that  body.  There  was  not  sufficient  time 
for  the  bill  to  become  a  law  before  Congress  adjourned, 
to  meet  again  in  the  month  of  November  of  the  same 
year,  when  the  measure  of  admission  was  taken  up  for 
consideration.  An  amendment  thereto  was  now  offered 
by  a  representative  of  the  State  of  New  York,  providing 
against  "the  introduction  of  slavery  or  involuntary  serv 
itude"  in  said  territory  after  it  should  have  become  a 
state,  and  had  been  admitted  into  the  Federal  Union  as 
such.  This  restriction  was  incorporated  with  the  bill  in 
the  House,  and  the  bill  as  amended  was  sent  to  the  Sen 
ate  for  its  consideration.  The  latter  body  struck  out  the 
restrictive  amendment,  and  adopted  the  bill  as  a  simple 
act  of  admission. 

In  the  form  which  it  had  thus  assumed  in  the  Senate 
the  bill  again  made  its  appearance  in  the  House,  when  a 


52  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

motion  for  its  indefinite  postponement  having  failed, 
upon  the  question  which  then  arose  of  concurrence  in 
the  territorial  amendment,  a  small  negative  majority  was 
the  result,  and  the  bill,  embodying  again  the  restriction 
mentioned,  a  second  time  reached  the  Senate,  when,  the 
latter  body  insisting  upon  its  amendment,  it  was  once 
more  sent  back  to  the  House,  where  a  motion  that  the 
House  should  adhere  to  its  vote  of  disagreement  prevail 
ed.  Missouri  was  not,  therefore,  then  admitted.  Again 
the  measure  was  brought  forward  in  the  Congress  which 
commenced  its  session  in  December,  1819.  After  much 
altercation  in  both  Houses,  and  various  movements  of  cu 
rious  political  adroitness  not  needful  to  be  here  specified, 
with  an  intense  excitement  ever  on  the  increase  alike  in 
Congress  and  in  the  whole  country,  a  compromise,  as  it 
was  called,  was  finally  agreed  upon,  whereby  the  State  of 
Missouri  was  given  admission  as  a  slave  state,  with  its 
territorial  extent  limited  to  the  North  by  the  line  of  36 
degrees  30  minutes  north  latitude ;  and  in  all  the  remain 
ing  territory  belonging  to  the  government  of  the  country 
acquired  by  purchase  from  France  in  the  year  1803,  slav 
ery  or  involuntary  servitude  WBS  forever  prohibited. 

Such  is  the  substance  of  the  celebrated  Missouri  Com 
promise,  devised  by  able  statesmen  and  devoted  patriots 
nearly  a  half  century  ago,  for  the  purpose  of  saving  the 
republic  itself  from  ruin  then  most  seriously  menaced. 
And  who  shall  now  censure  this  wise  and  noble  act, 
which  restored  peace  once  more  to  a  disturbed  country, 
and  perchance  averted  the  horrors  of  war  as  fierce  and 
terrible  as  that  which  we  of  the  present  generation  have 
just  so  painfully  realized  ? 


MISSOURI   COMPROMISE.  53 

As  to  the  power  of  Congress,  under  the  Federal  Consti 
tution,  to  exclude  slavery  from  any  portion  of  the  public 
domain  of  which  it  has  been  given  control,  I  have  at  pres 
ent  little  to  say.  Whether,  under  the  clause  of  the  Con 
stitution  giving  to  Congress  "power  to  make  needful  rules 
and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  of  the  United 
States,"  that  body  may  adopt,  as  one  of  these  regulations, 
such  a  prohibitory  clause  as  that  embodied  in  the  Missou 
ri  Compromise,  thus  assimilating  the  whole  of  the  vacant 
territory  of  which  it  has  been  given  the  administration 
to  that  portion  merely  to  which  a  similar  prohibition  was 
extended  under  the  authority  of  the  confederation,  is  a 
question  exceedingly  difficult  to  be  satisfactorily  solved ; 
upon  which  the  ablest  and  purest  statesmen,  and  the  most 
astute  and  erudite  jurists  that  the  country  has  known 
have  been  long  most  painfully  divided  in  opinion,  and 
one  which  (perhaps  happily  for  us  all)  has  been  now  for 
ever  settled  by  the  sternest  and  most  inexorable  arbiter 
to  whose  decision  it  is  possible  that  the  earth-born  affairs 
of  mortals  can  be  submitted.  But,  I  again  ask,  who  of 
us  now  of  the  present  generation  will  presume  to  con 
demn  the  peace-makers  of  1819  ?  "Who  is  at  this  moment 
inclined  to  bring  harsh  and  undeserved  opprobrium  upon 
the  great  and  good  men,  whether  of  the  North  or  of  the 
South,  who  risked  their  fame,  their  popularity,  and  per 
chance  in  some  instances,  also,  their  repose  in  social  life, 
for  their  country's  safety  at  a  moment  so  full  of  peril  ? 
Where  is  the  man  that  will  undertake  to  deny  that,  in 
nearly  all  the  most  difficult  concerns  of  human  society, 
when  great  public  interests  are  at  stake,  and  when  ques 
tions  shall  arise  for  decision  eminently  dark  and  difficult 


54  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

in  their  character,  and  which  stand  surrounded  on  all  sides 
with  considerations  of  grave  and  vital  expediency,  so  ur 
gent  in  their  nature  as  imperiously  to  demand  that  all  the 
nobler  instincts  of  the  soul  should  be  put  in  exercise,  as 
well  as  all  the  higher  faculties  of  the  understanding,  for 
the  ascertainment  of  the  true  pathway  of  duty — where  is 
the  man,  I  ask,  who  will  deny  that  compromise — yes,  com 
promise,  a  little  giving  and  taking,  here  and  there,  on  both 
sides  of  the  line  of  controversy — a  little  conciliation,  for 
bearance,  yea,  and  of  sacrifice  too,  if  need  be,  of  cherished 
opinions,  of  loved  personal  interests,  and  of  the  ambitious 
desires  for  local  ascendency,  may  be  both  wise  and  patriot 
ic,  if  any  or  all  of  these  shall  be  found  to  stand  in  the 
way  of  a  nation's  salvation  ?  Were  not  such  the  views 
of  Washington  and  his  compeers  of  the  last  century  ?  Is 
it  not  in  support  of  such  views  as  these  that  some  men  of 
our  times,  little  less  worthy  of  love  and  veneration  than 
the  men  of  '76  themselves,  have  been  known  to  act  on 
more  than  one  critical  occasion  ?  Compromise  !  Compro 
mise  !  that  term  hateful  to  the  dreamers  and  cold  abstrac 
tionists  of  the  present  vapid  and  shallow  generation,  but 
which  is,  notwithstanding,  oftentimes  grandly  typical  of 
the  utmost  attainable  perfection  of  human  reasoning,  when 
that  reasoning  may  be  said  to  partake  least  of  the  discred 
iting  taint  of  mortality,  and  to  approach  most  nearly  to  the 
unerring  and  unfathomable  wisdom  of  the  Deity  himself! 
I  propose  to  conclude  this  chapter  with  an  apt  and 
pregnant  quotation  from  a  work  of  a  deceased  American 
statesman  on  Government,  which  I  fear  has  been  far  too 
little  read  since  its  first  appearance,  about  fifteen  years 
ago,  even  in  the  very  region  in  which  it  had  its  origin, 


CALHOUN   ON   COMPROMISE.  55 

and  among  the  avowed  disciples,  too,  of  a  truly  great  and 
patriotic  personage,  who,  I  can  not  doubt,  is  destined  to  be 
much  better  understood  and  much  more  accurately  appre 
ciated  hereafter  than  it  was  his  fortune  to  be  by  many  in 
his  own  age. 

Thus  speaks  John  C.  Calhoun,  as  it  were,  from  the  tomb 
wherein  he  lies  inurned : 

"  Constitutional  governments,  of  whatever  form,  are,  in 
deed,  much  more  similar  to  each  other  in  their  structure 
and  character  than  they  are,  respectively,  to  the  absolute 
governments  even  of  their  own  class.  All  constitutional 
governments,  of  whatever  class  they  may  be,  take  the 
sense  of  the  community  by  its  parts,  each  through  its  ap 
propriate  organ,  and  regard  the  sense  of  all  its  parts  as 
the  sense  of  the  whole.  They  all  rest  on  the  right  of 
suffrage,  and  the  responsibility  of  rulers,  directly  or  indi 
rectly.  On  the  contrary,  all  absolute  governments,  of 
whatever  form,  concentrate  power  in  one  uncontrolled 
and  irresponsible  individual  or  body,  whose  will  is  re 
garded  as  the  sense  of  the  community.  And  hence  the 
great  and  broad  distinction  between  governments  is  not 
that  of  the  one,  the  few,  or  the  many,  but  of  the  constitu 
tional  and  the  absolute. 

"From  this  there  results  another  distinction,  which,  al 
though  secondary  in  its  character,  very  strongly  marks 
the  difference  between  these  forms  of  government.  I  re 
fer  to  their  respective  conservative  principle — that  is,  the 
principle  by  which  they  are  upheld  and  preserved.  This 
principle,  in  constitutional  governments,  is  compromise, 
and  in  absolute  governments  is  force,  as  will  be  next  ex 
plained. 

"  It  has  been  already  shown  that  the  same  constitution 


56  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

of  man  which  leads  those  who  govern  to  oppress  the  gov 
erned,  if  not  prevented,  will,  with  equal  force  and  certain 
ty,  lead  the  latter  to  resist  oppression,  when  possessed  of 
the  means  of  doing  so  peaceably  and  successfully.  But 
absolute  governments,  of  all  forms,  exclude  all  other 
means  of  resistance  to  their  authority  than  that  of  force, 
and,  of  course,  leave  no  other  alternative  to  the  govern 
ed  but  to  acquiesce  in  oppression,  however  great  it  may 
be,  or  to  resort  to  force  to  put  down  the  government. 
But  the  dread  of  such  a  resort  must  necessarily  lead  the 
government  to  prepare  to  meet  force  in  order  to  protect 
itself;  and  hence,  of  necessity,  force  becomes  the  conserv 
ative  principle  of  all  such  governments. 

"On  the  contrary,  the  government  of  the  concurrent 
majority,  where  the  organism  is  perfect,  excludes  the  pos 
sibility  of  oppression,  by  giving  to  each  interest,  or  por 
tion,  or  order,  where  there  are  established  classes,  the 
means  of  protecting  itself,  by  its  negative,  against  all  meas 
ures  calculated  to  advance  the  peculiar  interests  of  others 
at  its  expense.  Its  effect,  then,  is  to  cause  the  different 
interests,  portions,  or  orders,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  desist 
from  attempting  to  adopt  any  measure  calculated  to  pro 
mote  the  prosperity  of  one  or  more,  by  sacrificing  that  of 
others ;  and  thus  to  force  them  to  unite  in  such  measures 
only  as  would  promote  the  prosperity  of  all,  as  the  only 
means  to  prevent  the  suspension  of  the  action  of  the  gov 
ernment,  and  thereby  to  avoid  anarchy,  the  greatest  of  all 
evils.  It  is  by  means  of  such  authorized  and  effectual  re 
sistance  that  oppression  is  prevented,  and  the  necessity  of 
resorting  to  force  superseded,  in  governments  of  the  con 
current  majority ;  and  hence  compromise,  instead  of  force, 
becomes  their  conservative  principle. 


CALHOTJN   ON   COMPROMISE.  57 

"It  would  perhaps  be  more  strictly  correct  to  trace  the 
conservative  principle  of  constitutional  governments  to 
the  necessity  which  compels  the  different  interests,  or  por 
tions,  or  orders  to  compromise,  as  the  only  way  to  pro 
mote  their  respective  prosperity  and  to  avoid  anarchy, 
rather  than  to  the  compromise  itself.  No  necessity  can 
be  more  urgent  and  imperious  than  that  of  avoiding  an 
archy.  It  is  the  same  as  that  which  makes  government 
indispensable  to  preserve  society,  and  is  not  less  impera 
tive  than  that  which  compels  obedience  to  superior  force. 
Traced  to  this  source,  the  voice  of  a  people — uttered  un 
der  the  necessity  of  avoiding  the  greatest  of  calamities, 
through  the  organs  of  a  government  so  constructed  as  to 
suppress  the  expression  of  all  partial  and  selfish  interests, 
and  to  give  a  full  and  faithful  utterance  to  the  sense  of 
the  whole  community  in  reference  to  its  common  welfare 
— may,  without  impiety,  be  called  the  voice  of  God.  To 
call  any  other  so  would  be  impious. 

"In  stating  that  force  is  the  conservative  principle  of 
absolute,  and  compromise  of  constitutional  governments, 
I  have  assumed  both  to  be  perfect  in  their  kind ;  but  not 
without  bearing  in  mind  that  few  or  none,  in  fact,  have 
ever  been  so  absolute  as  not  to  be  under  some  restraint, 
and  none  so  perfectly  organized  as  to  represent  fully  and 
perfectly  the  voice  of  the  whole  community.  Such  being 
the  case,  all  must,  in  practice,  depart  more  or  less  from  the 
principles  by  which  they  are  respectively  upheld  and  pre 
served,  and  depend  more  or  less  for  support  on  force,  or 
compromise,  as  the  absolute  or  the  constitutional  form 
predominates  in  their  respective  organizations." 

02 


58  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Happy  Cessation  of  Excitement  after  the  Adoption  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise. — Era  of  good  Feeling  during  the  Remainder  of  Mr.  Monroe's 
Administration.: — Presidential  Contest  of  1824. — Mr.  Adams's  Elec 
tion  by  the  House  of  Representatives  to  the  Presidency. — Inaugural 
Speech  of  Mr.  Adams. — Interesting  Scene  in  the  White  House  on  the 
Occasion  of  President  Monroe's  taking  Leave  of  his  Friends  to  return 
to  his  private  Home  in  Virginia. — Intense  Excitement  growing  out  of 
Mr.  Adams's  Election,  but  without  any  Intermixture  of  sectional  Feel 
ing. — Violent  and  illiberal  Opposition  to  his  Administration. — Defeat 
of  Mr.  Adams  for  Re-election  in  1828,  and  Elevation  of  General  An 
drew  Jackson  in  his  Stead. — Rise  of  Nullification  in  South  Carolina  in 
1832. — GeneralJackson's  Proclamation  against  South  Carolina. — Mr. 
Clay's  successful  Scheme  of  Pacification,  known  as  the  Compromise 
Tariff  Bill. — Origin  of  Abolition  Societies  in  1835. — Minute  historical 
Account  of  these  Societies  give  if  in  Mr.  Greeley's  "American  Conflict."' 
— Mr.  Webster's  striking  Remarks  upon  these  Societies  in  his  7th  of 
March  Speech. — Author  declines  any  special  Notice  of  the  Presenta 
tion  of  Abolition  Petitions,  and  the  excited  Discussions  growing  out  of 
the  same. — Notice  of  the  Acquisition  of  Texas  with  the  general  Con 
sent  of  the  American  People. — Breaking  out  of  the  Mexican  War,  and 
Presentation  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  in  the  Midst  thereof. — Author's 
Election  to  the  United  States  Senate,  with  Jefferson  Davis  as  his  offi 
cial  Colleague.  —  Serious  political  Disagreements  between  them.  — 
Sketch  of  President  Davis's  Character,  with  some  Notice  of  his  Histo 
ry. — Session  of  the  United  States  Senate  commencing  in  December, 
1847. — Mr.  Dickinson's  Non-intervention  Resolution,  and  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's  extreme  Opposition  to  it. — Curious  colloquial  Scene  in  the  Sen 
ate.— General  Cass's  Nicholson  Letter. — Complimentary  Notice  of  Gen 
eral  Cass. 

IN  taking  a  retrospect  of  the  past,  it  is  alike  surprising 
and  gratifying  to  observe  how  soon  after  the  adoption  of 


VALUE   OF   COMPROMISE.  59 

the  Missouri  Compromise  it  was  that  the  public  mind 
became  every  where  once  more  tranquil. 

The  majestic  ship  of  state,  which  Longfellow  has  so 
beautifully  depictured,  was  seen  careering  again  over  the 
surface  of  the  now  untroubled  deep,  whose  waves  had  no 
longer  power  to  disturb  the  regularity  of  its  movements, 
or  impede  the  celerity  of  its  course.  Those  of  us  who 
remember  the  three  years  of  happy  quietude  which  our 
country  enjoyed  under  the  upright  and  truly  conserva 
tive  administration  of  Mr,  Fillmore,  are  best  able  to  un 
derstand  how  magically  efficacious  are  sometimes  found 
to  be  the  healing  balsams  furnished  by  a  judicious  and  lib 
eral  pharmacopoeia,  when  these  shall  be  applied  in  season 
to  wounds  inflicted  by  unfriendly  hands  upon  the  most 
vital  parts  of  the  body  politic.  I  shall  ever  hold  it  to 
have  been  a  most  fortunate  circumstance  for  our  coun 
try's  welfare  that  a  few  of  those  experienced  and  gifted 
statesmen  who  had  been  prominently  instrumental  in 
saving  the  republic  from  menaced  overthrow  in  1819 
lingered  still  upon  the  public  stage  after  full  thirty  years 
had  rolled  away,  and  that  they  were  found  alike  ready 
and  willing  to  lend  their  inspiring  presence,  as  well  as 
their  priceless  monitions,  to  a  rash  and  froward  genera 
tion,  who  at  one  moment  seemed  bent  upon  making  sud 
den  shipwreck  of  those  moral  treasures  which,  once  lost, 
are  in  general  found  to  be  completely  past  recovery. 
But  let  us  proceed  with  our  rapid  historic  review. 

During  the  remainder  of  Mr.  Monroe's  administration 
party  excitement  was  almost  unknown,  and  indeed  at  the 
close  of  it  there  was  only  one  party  designation  known 
in  all  the  broad  republic.  It  was  during  the  continuance 


60  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

of  this  political  calm  that  four  presidential  candidates 
were  seen  to  present  themselves  to  popular  considera 
tion,  all  of  whom  professed  to  be  of  the  same  creed,  and 
claimed  the  same  political  associations — Mr.  Crawford, 
Mr,  Clay,  General  Jackson,  and  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams, 
about  the  shoulders  of  the  last  of  whom  was  the  presi 
dential  mantle  destined  to  be  ultimately  cast. 

On  the  4th  day  of  March,  1825,  the  writer  of  these 
pages,  then  a  mere  novice  in  the  great  world  of  national 
politics,  had  the  honor  of  seeing  John  Quincy  Adams  for 
the  first  time,  and  of  listening  to  that  inaugural  speech 
of  his  which  was  fated  to  call  forth  so  much  of  sharp  and 
biting  criticism,  and  of  ungenerous  objurgation.  I  was, 
an  hour  or  two  afterward,  one  of  the  numerous  visitants 
who  thronged  the  presidential  mansion  in  order  to  take 
leave  of  Mr.  Monroe  and  to  greet  the  incoming  of  his 
successor,  and  well  do  I  remember  the  bland  and  cheer 
ful  aspect  of  the  venerable  man  who,  then  in  a  state  of 
green  old  age,  was  gracefully  casting  off  the  harness  of 
official  labor  and  responsibility,  as  Well  as  the  solemn  and 
care-marked  visage  of  his  successor,  who,  under  embar 
rassing  and  unprecedented  circumstances,  and  with  the 
prospect  opening  upon  him  of  a  long  course  of  virulent 
and  relentless  assailment  from  a  thousand  heretofore 
friendly  quarters,  was  about  to  take  upon  himself  duties 
the  performance  of  which  I  am  sure  no  truly  sagacious 
man  has  ever  yet  eagerly  coveted,  who  at  the  same  time 
expected  to  perform  them  with  a  true  and  vigorous  fidel 
ity.  Though  Mr.  Adams  very  soon  found  a  fierce  and 
energetic  party  organized  for  his  overthrow,  and  though 
the  most  strenuous  efforts  were  used  by  his  zealous  oppo- 


JACKSON — WEBSTER — CLAY.  61 

nents  in  order  to  effect  his  defeat  in  the  next  presidential 
election,  I  am  not  aware  that  this  opposition  to  him  has 
been  heretofore  asserted  to  have  been  at  all  of  a  sectional 
cast.  When  General  Jackson  succeeded  him  in  1829 
there  were  no  indications  any  where  that  a  political  or 
ganization  merely  sectional  in  its  character  was  at  all  like 
ly  to  make  its  sinister  appearance  either  in  the  North  or 
in  the  South.  After  the  second  election  of  this  remarka 
ble  personage  had  occurred,  though,  and  perhaps  a  little 
before  the  close  of  his  first  official  term,  such  an  organ 
ization  did  arise  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  which 
very  soon  ramified  itself  into  several  other  states.  The 
grounds  assumed  for  the  formation  of  this  party  were 
plausible  enough  in  the  beginning,  but  it  never  had  a 
perfectly  healthful  and  vigorous  existence,  and  would,  in 
in  all  probability,  have  ultimately  perished  from  its  own 
intrinsic  feebleness,  even  had  it  not  been  promptly  and 
energetically  dealt  with  by  the  heroic  and  sagacious  man 
then  occupying  the  chair  of  state.  The  local  movements 
which  at  that  period  occurred  in  South  Carolina;  the 
dangerous  political  theories  disseminated  then  among  her 
sensitive  and  mercurial  people;  the  conventional  ordi 
nances  solemnly  adopted,  but  which  were  destined  never 
to  be  enforced ;  the  excited  and  long-continued  discus 
sion  which  these  various  movements  brought  on  in  the 
halls  of  the  national  Congress  ;  Mr.  Webster's  several  au 
gust  and  triumphant  refutations  of  the  absurd  theory  of 
nullification ;  General  Jackson's  paralyzing  and  crushing 
proclamation,  are  all  yet  fresh  in  the  memories  of  millions. 
I  hope  it  is  not  yet  forgotten  either,  that  in  1832,  Mr. 
Clay,  the  great  pacificator,  as  he  has  been  so  aptly  enti- 


62  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

tied,  was,  fortunately,  then  in  the  national  Senate,  and 
that,  being  earnestly  pressed  from  various  quarters,  as  I 
have  myself  more  than  once  heard  him  declare  to  be  the 
fact,  to  undertake  the  work  of  conciliation  then  so  much 
needed,  this  gentleman,  with  that  clear  judgment  and 
lofty  moral  courage  for  which  he  was  so  celebrated, 
brought  forward  and  quickly  secured  the  passage  of  what 
is  known  as  the  Compromise  Tariff  Bill,  which  measure 
proved  satisfactory  to  fair  and  just-minded  men  every 
where,  extinguished  the  local  excitement  yet  lingering  in 
South  Carolina,  and  diffused  peace  and  brotherly  kind 
ness  once  more  over  the  whole  republic. 

About  the  year  1835,  as  has  been  generally  agreed,  a 
new  and  serious  danger  to  the  quiet  of  the  country  began 
to  disclose  itself:  I  allude  to  organized  opposition,  in 
some  of  the  free  states  of  the  North,  to  slavery  as  it  then 
existed  in  the  South.  For  many  reasons,  some  of  which 
are  of  a  nature  which  I  do  not  deem  it  expedient  here  to 
unfold,  the  united  force  of  which,  though,  will  give  to 
them  a  controlling  influence  over  my  action  in  this  par 
ticular,  I  shall  decline  entering  into  a  minute  examina 
tion  of  all  the  painful  particulars  connected,  in  one  way 
or  another,  with  the  origin  and  speedy  multiplication  of 
associations  set  on  foot  in  the  free  states  for  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  slaveholding  system  of  the  South.  Those 
who  are  desirous  of  obtaining  information  upon  this  sub 
ject,  both  ample  in  volume  and  minute  in  detail,  embel 
lished  with  frequent  delineations  of  character,  and  numer 
ous  scenes  not  unsuited  to  appear  in  the  pages  of  a  well- 
written  romance,  or  as  portions  of  some  stately  produc 
tion  inspired  by  the  historic  muse,  will  be  able  to  gratify 


WEBSTER  ON  ABOLITION  SOCIETIES.  63 

their  curiosity  on  this  subject  most  fully  by  looking 
through  the  first  volume  of  Mr.  Greeley's  "  American 
Conflict."  I  may  be  permitted,  I  trust,  without  giving 
serious  offense  in  any  respectable  quarter,  to  say  that, 
while  I  am  disposed  to  give  full  credit  to  many  of  the 
prominent  champions  of  abolition, 'whose  virtues  and 
achievements  the  author  just  referred  to  has  so  glowing 
ly  depictured,  for  entire  conscientiousness  of  motive,  and 
for  having  also  done  more  or  less  good  in  their  day  and 
generation  (good  unfortunately  not  unmixed  with  evil), 
yet  I  can  not  but  agree  with  Mr.  Webster  in  what  he  is 
reported  to  have  said  in  regard  to  the  same  associations 
in  his  great  7th  of  March  speech,  which  contains  the  fol 
lowing  weighty  declarations : 

"  Then,  sir,  there  are  the  abolition  societies,  of  which 
I  am  unwilling  to  speak,  but  in  regard  to  which  I  have 
very  clear  notions  and  opinions.  I  do  not  think  them 
useful.  I  think  their  operations  for  the  last  twenty  years 
have  produced  nothing  good  or  valuable.  At  the  same 
time,  I  believe  thousands  of  their  members  to  be  honest 
and  good  men,  perfectly  well-meaning  men.  They  have 
excited  feelings,  they  think  they  must  do  something  for 
the  cause  of  liberty ;  and  in  their  sphere  of  action  they 
do  not  see  what  else  they  can  do  than  to  contribute  to 
an  abolition  press,  or  an  abolition  society,  or  to  pay  an 
abolition  lecturer.  I  do  not  mean  to  impute  gross  mo 
tives  even  to  the  leaders  of  these  societies,  but  I  am  not 
blind  to  the  consequences  of  their  proceedings.  I  can 
not  but  see  what  mischiefs  their  interference  with  the 
South  has  produced.  And  is  it  not  plain  to  every  man? 
Let  any  gentleman  who  entertains  doubts  on  this  point 


64  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

recur  to  the  debates  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates 
in  1832,  and  lie  will  see  with  what  freedom  a  proposition 
made  by  Mr.  Jefferson  Eandolph  for  the  gradual  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  was  discussed  in  that  body.  Every  one 
spoke  of  slavery  as  he  thought ;  very  ignominious  and 
disparaging  names  and  epithets  were  applied  to  it.  The 
debates  in  the  House  of  Delegates  on  that  occasion,  I  be 
lieve,  are  all  published.  They  were  read  by  every  col 
ored  man  who  could  read,  and  to  those  who  could  not 
read  those  debates  were  read  by  others.  At  that  time 
Virginia  was  not  unwilling  or  afraid  to  discuss  this  ques 
tion,  and  to  let  that  part  of  her  population  know  as  much 
of  the  discussion  as  they  could  learn.  That  was  in  1835. 
As  has  been  said  by  the  honorable  member  from  South 
Carolina,  Mr.  Calhoun,  these  abolition  societies  commenced 
a  new  course  of  action.  It  is  said,  I  do  not  know  how 
true  it  may  be,  that  they  sent  incendiary  publications  into 
the  slave  states;  at  any  rate,  they  attempted  to  arouse, 
and  did  arouse  a  very  strong  feeling;  in  other  words, 
they  created  great  agitation  in  the  North  against  South 
ern  slavery.  Well,  what  was  the  result?  The  bonds 
of  the  slaves  were  bound  more  firmly  than  before ;  their 
rivets  were  more  strongly  fastened.  Public  opinion, 
which  in  Virginia  had  begun  to  be  exhibited  against 
slavery,  and  was  opening  out  for  the  discussion  of  the 
question,  drew  back  and  shut  itself  up  in  its  castle.  I 
wish  to  know  whether  any  body  in  Virginia  can  now 
talk  openly,  as  Mr.  Eandolph,  Governor  McDowell,  and 
others  talked  in  1832,  and  sent  their  remarks  to  the 
press?  We  all  know  the  fact,  and  we  all  know  the 
cause  ;  and  every  thing  that  these  agitating  people  have 


TWENTY  YEAKS  AGO.  65 

done  has  been,  not  to  enlarge,  but  to  restrain,  not  to  set 
free,  but  to  bind  faster,  the  slave  population  of  the 
South." 

I  shall  cheerfully  leave  to  others  the  "unwelcome  task 
of  describing  those  scenes  of  crimination  and  recrimina 
tion  which  have  heretofore  taken  place  in  the  two  Houses 
of  Congress  in  connection  with  the  presentations  of  abo 
lition  petitions,  and  which  are  known  to  have  been 
marked  with  ebullitions  of  rancor  and  ill-will,  which  no 
true  friend  to  the  future  repose  and  concord  of  the  re 
public  can  desire  to  withhold  from  oblivion.  I  should 
be  of  all  men  most  unwilling  to  do  or  say  aught  on  this 
delicate  and  exciting  subject  to  inflame  ancient  irrita 
tions,  or  provoke  the  fresh  discussion  of  questions  which 
are  now  most  emphatically  res  judicata.  That  there  has 
been  much  of  needless  and  unprofitable  zeal  manifested 
in  times  past,  both  on  the  one  side  and  the  other,  upon 
the  occasions  referred  to,  no  reasonable  man  would  now 
be  inclined  to  deny.  For  my  own  part,  I  am  not  a  little 
gratified  to  feel  that,  in  order  to  develop  the  true  causes 
which  have  led  to  so  much  shedding  of  fraternal  blood  in 
civil  strife  as  we  have  been  of  late  compelled  to  witness, 
it  will  not  be  necessary  to  dwell  to  the  extent  which  some 
of  our  contemporaries  have  judged  it  right  to  do  upon 
various  topics  which  I  have  determined,  for  the  reason 
just  suggested,  altogether  to  pretermit. 

After  much  and  painful  scrutiny,  I  have  become  en 
tirely  satisfied  that  twenty  years  ago  there  was  no  earthly 
danger  that  abolition  hostility  would  ever  be  able  to  ac 
complish  the  downfall  of  African  slavery  on  this  conti 
nent.  Under  the  protecting  asgis  of  the  Federal  Consti- 


66  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

tution,  with  the  exercise  of  a  sound  practical  discretion 
on  the  part  of  its  professed  friends  and  supporters,  it 
would  doubtless  have  survived  for  many  generations  yet 
to  come,  and  would  have  been  only  in  the  end  dispensed 
with  when  those  connected  with  its  control  and  manage 
ment  should  have  found  that  its  continued  existence  was 
no  longer  desirable  either  to  themselves  or  to  the  world 
at  large.  Twenty  years  ago,  Mr.  Polk  had  been  triumph 
ant  over  his  great  competitor,  Mr.  Clay,  mainly  upon 
what  was  known  as  the  issue  of  Texan  annexation,  and 
was  vigorously  and  successfully  running  that  career 
which  has  so  justly  endeared  his  name  to  all  who  feel  a 
proper  interest  in  the  future  territorial  extension  and 
moral  ascendency  of  the  American  republic  in  this  hem 
isphere.  Twenty  years  ago,  the  slaveholding  system  of 
the  South  seemed  to  be  well-nigh  as  solid  and  likely  to 
endure  even  as  the  Federal  Union  itself.  Twenty  years 
ago,  the  now  prostrate  and  exhausted  states  of  the  South 
were  prosperous,  free,  and  happy,  and  those  who  dwelt 
therein  possessed  the  respect  and  sympathy  of  the  en 
lightened  and  liberal-minded  in  every  country  where  the 
honored  name  of  America  had  itself  been  pronounced. 

The  prejudices  of  men  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  in 
regard  to  every  thing  Southern,  either  in  its  location  or 
origin,  so  far  as  their  prejudices  had  made  themselves 
apparent,  were  fast  giving  way  under  the  influence  of 
great  commercial  considerations,  and  of  that  surest  of  all 
teachers — Time.  The  then  recent  acquisition  of  Texas, 
obtained  with  the  general  consent  of  the  American  peo 
ple,  North  as  well  as  South,  mainly,  as  we  all  vividly  re 
member,  with  a  view  to  defeating  the  anti-slavery  policy 


WILMOT  PROVISO,  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  67 

of  Great  Britain,  then  aiming  to  undermine  the  cotton- 
growing  system  of  the  South  by  converting  Texas  into  a 
free  British  province,  had  supplied  a  new  bulwark  to 
that  system,  and  a  wider  area  for  African  slavery,  then 
generally  supposed  to  be  so  desirable.  The  thrice  happy 
and  exultant  South,  in  despite  of  the  solemn  teachings 
of  her  sagest  and  most  sagacious  statesman,  was  then,  like 
the  youthful  Alexander,  "  sighing  for  new  worlds  to  con 
quer,"  and  was  preparing,  with  the  apparent  sanction  of 
millions  dwelling  far  to  the  north  of  the  celebrated  Ma 
son  and  Dixon's  line,  to  plunge  the  country  into  a  war 
with  contiguous  Mexico. 

Just  then  movements  originated  which,  though  they  at 
tracted  less  attention  at  the  time  than  they  should  have 
done,  were  opening  the  way  to  occurrences  the  influence 
of  which  will  be  felt  for  a  thousand  generations  yet  to 
arise.  Soon  the  "Wilmot  Proviso  cloud,  at  first  "  no  big 
ger  than  a  man's  hand,"  was,  before  it  should  disappear, 
to  cover  the  whole  heavens  with  blackness.  Presently 
a  second  cloud,  sometimes,  and  aptly,  entitled  "  the  Wil 
mot  Proviso  South,"  was  to  make  its  appearance,  and  aid 
in  precipitating  the  coming  storm.  At  this  period  of  the 
country's  history  I  had  the  fortune  to  be  sent  to  the 
United  States  Senate  from  the  State  of  Mississippi,  as  the 
colleague  of  one  whose  name  is  now  a  familiar  word  in 
the  languages  of  all  nations.  A  portion  of  what  I  saw 
and  heard  in  that  high  position,  and  of  what  I  have  au 
thentically  learned  from  miscellaneous  sources,  both  in 
Washington  and  elsewhere,  I  shall  now  proceed  to  bring 
forward,  with  such  occasional  reflections  as  shall  occur  to 
me.  Aware  how  difficult  it  is,  as  Mr.  Gibbon  has  finely 


68  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

remarked,  for  "a  man  to  speak  gracefully  of  himself,"  I 
shall  yet  have  to  incur  the  hazard  of  being  accused  by 
some  of  unbecoming  egotism  in  undertaking  to  narrate 
occurrences  of  great  dignity  and  importance,  in  which, 
though  always  acting  a  very  subordinate  part,  I  had  nec 
essarily,  to  some  extent,  an  official  participation.  Hop 
ing  that  what  I  shall  now  attempt  to  impart  will  at  least 
receive  a  liberal  interpretation,  I  shall  proceed  to  the  task 
before  me. 

As  would  be  naturally  expected,  I  shall  essay,  as  a 
preliminary  proceeding,  to  describe,  in  as  concise  a  man 
ner  as  I  can,  and  with  as  much  impartiality,  I  trust,  as  if 
he  had  lived  a  thousand  years  ago,  the  personage  whom 
the  accidents  of  public  life  had  now  given  me  for  a  sena 
torial  colleague.  Mr.  Davis  was  born,  as  I  have  repeat 
edly  heard  from  his  own  lips,  in  the  State  of  Kentucky, 
where  he  was  afterward  in  part  educated.  His  boyish 
days  were  spent  chiefly  in  the  State  of  Mississippi,  whence 
he  was  sent,  in  due  season,  to  West  Point,  as  a  cadet  of 
that  institution.  On  graduating  there,  he  joined  the  reg 
ular  army,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  and  I  saw  him  first 
in  the  city  of  Yicksburg,  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  as 
Lieutenant  Davis,  He  was  then  a  young  man  of  modest 
and  pleasing  aspect  and  manners,  but  gave  slight  indica 
tions  of  any  abilities  likely  to  lead  to  future  distinction. 
He  married,  left  the  army,  and  settled  himself  on  a  plant 
ation  of  respectable  dimensions  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  County  of  Warren,  some  twenty  miles  from  the  city 
of  Vicksburg,  where  he  has  constantly  resided  since,  un 
til  he  became  President  of  the  Confederate  States.  I  saw 
him  rarely  after  his  retirement,  being  myself  a  good  deal 


JEFFERSON  DAVIS.  69 

engaged  at  this  period  in  professional  and  other  pursuits ; 
but  I  have  learned  that  Mr.  Davis  lived  a  very  secluded 
and  studious  life  for  a  series  of  years,  until  about  the  year 
1843  he  visited  the  city  of  Jackson  as  delegate  to  a  Dem 
ocratic  Convention ;  during  the  session  of  which  body  I 
met  him  once  more,  and  heard  from  his  lips  a  formal  and 
elaborate  eulogy  upon  Mr.  Calhoun's  character  and  prin 
ciples,  which  impressed  the  Convention  very  favorably 
indeed.  In  1844,  Mr.  Davis  and  myself,  as  Democratic 
co-electoral  candidates  upon  the  Polk  and  Dallas  presi 
dential  ticket,  traversed  the  State  of  Mississippi  together, 
and  addressed  in  connection  numerous  large  popular  as 
semblages,  by  whom,  in  general,  he  was  most  kindly  and 
respectfully  received,  and  attentively  listened  to.  He 
was  afterward  nominated  for  Congress,  and  elected  to  a 
seat  in  the  House  of  ^Representatives,  which  he  occupied 
for  several  months  of  one  session  only,  having  been 
chosen,  in  his  absence  at  Washington,  colonel  of  a  new 
volunteer  regiment  which  had  been  a  short  time  before 
raised  in  Mississippi  for  the  Mexican  War,  which  was  then 
in  progress.  The  regiment  which  Mr.  Davis  commanded 
as  colonel  won  much  eclat  both  at  Monterey  and  Buena- 
vista,  at  the  latter  of  which  places  he  was  severely  wound 
ed  in  the  foot,  and,  returning  home  on  a  visit,  Governor 
A.  G.  Brown,  with  general  popular  approval,  appointed 
him  to  the  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate  from  the 
State  of  Mississippi,  which  had  recently  become  vacant 
by  reason  of  the  decease  of  General  Speight.  Mr.  Davis 
and  myself  journeyed  to  Washington  City  together  in 
the  autumn  of  1847,  and  arrived  there  several  days  be 
fore  the  session  of  Congress  commenced.  Very  soon 


70  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

after  taking  our  seats  as  senators  from  the  same  state,  it 
became  apparent  that  serious  incompatibilities,  both  of 
taste  and  temper,  as  well  as  exceedingly  conflicting  views 
of  men  and  measures,  forbade  all  reasonable  hope  of.  our 
being  able  to  harmonize  as  would  have  been  every  way 
so  desirable.  My  opinion  of  Mr.  Davis  then  was  pretty 
much  as  it  is  at  present,  and  may  be  expressed  in  a  few 
words.  He  is,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  those  terms,  a 
high-minded  and  well-bred  man.  In  domestic  life,  I  do 
not  doubt  that  he  is  amiable  and  exemplary.  In  his  tem 
per,  as  displayed  on  public  occasions,  he  is  arbitrary  and 
exacting,  His  personal  ambition  is  most  intense  and  ex 
orbitant.  He  is  overtenacious  alike  in  his  public  resolves 
and  in  his  personal  partialities  and  prejudices.  He  doubt 
less  always  intends  to  do  right,  but  is  often  in  gross  error, 
both  as  to  men  and  to  affairs.  His  disposition,  naturally 
irritable  and  unquiet,  has  been  much  sharpened  and  em 
bittered  of  late  years  by  long-continued  and  severe  nerv 
ous  disease,  and  by  numerous  disappointments.  His  in 
tellect  is  certainly  above  mediocrit}^  both  in  strength  and 
activity,  and  his  general  literary  attainments  are  respect 
able  ;  but  it  will  be  admitted  by  all  who  have  approached 
him  nearly,  and  who  are  themselves  competent  to  judge, 
that  his  mind  is  not  at  all  remarkable  either  for  compre 
hensive  force  or  for  a  rich  fecundity  of  ideas.  With  the 
particular  branches  of  scienSe  belonging  to  a  strictly  mil 
itary  education  he  is  more  than  ordinarily  familiar;  in 
other  departments  of  learning  he  is  decidedly  deficient. 
As  a  party  tactician,  he  is  astute,  subtle,  and  plausible ; 
but  he  is  sadly  deficient  in  judgment,  in  a  politic  turn  for 
conciliation,  and  in  the  exercise  of  a  liberal  allowance  for 


DANIEL  S.  DICKINSON — HIS  RESOLUTIONS.  71 

trivial  differences  of  opinion.  His  public  course  is  about 
as  consistent  as  could  be  well  expected  among  politicians 
more  solicitous  of  obeying  party  obligations  and  securing 
personal  advancement,  than  of  maintaining  principles  and 
promoting  the  public  welfare.  Upon  the  whole,  those 
who  have  judged  him  capable  of  originating  a  grand  rev 
olutionary  movement,  and  of  conducting  it  forward  to 
success,  are  as  much  in  error  as  are  those,  if  there  be  any, 
who  suppose  him  capable  of  such  cold-blooded  and  cruel 
atrocities  as  those  which  have  been  of  late  so  trippingly 
attributed  to  him. 

One  of  the  most  agreeable  reminiscences  of  my  past 
public  life  is  the  first  interview  which  occurred  in  Wash 
ington  City  about  this  time  between  the  Hon.  Daniel  S. 
Dickinson  and  myself.  I  saw  this  gentleman  first  in  the 
spring  of  1847.  When  we  met  a  few  months  afterward, 
and  just  before  the  assemblage  of  the  Congress  of  1847,  '8, 
Mr.  Dickinson  did  me  the  honor  of  submitting  to  my 
consideration  the  following  resolutions,  which  he  inform 
ed  me  he  had  previously  laid  before  General  Cass,  then 
the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Democratic  party  in  Con 
gress,  and  I  learned  from  him  also  that  this  gentleman 
had  heartily  endorsed  the  same  : 

"Resolved,  That  true  policy  requires  the  government  of 
the  United  States  to  strengthen  its  political  relations  upon 
this  continent  by  the  annexation  of  such  contiguous  terri 
tory  as  may  conduce  to  that  end,  and  can  be  justly  obtain 
ed  ;  and  that  neither  in  such  acquisition,  nor  in  the  territo 
rial  organization  thereof,  can  any  conditions  be  constitu 
tionally  imposed,  or  institutions  be  provided  for  or  estab 
lished  inconsistent  with  the  rights  of  the  people  thereof 


72  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

to  form  a  free  sovereign  state,  with  the  powers  and  priv 
ileges  of  the  original  members  of  the  confederacy. 

"Resolved,  That  in  organizing  a  territorial  government 
for  territory  belonging  to  the  United  States,  the  princi 
ples  of  self-government  upon  which  our  federative  system 
rests  will  be  best  promoted,  the  true  spirit  and  meaning 
of  the  Constitution  be  observed,  and  the  confederacy 
strengthened,  by  leaving  all  matters  connected  with  the  ( 
domestic  policy  therein  to  the  Legislature  chosen  by  the 
people  thereof." 

It  will  be  found,  on  examination,  that  these  resolutions 
state,  in  very  clear  and  unambiguous  language,  the  great 
and  salutary  principle  of  popular  sovereignty  and  non-in 
tervention,  as  it  has  been  denominated,  which  was  after 
ward  embodied  in  the  Democratic  presidential  platform 
of  1848,  and  which  was  afterward  retained  therein,  with 
out  material  modification,  so  long  as  the  strength  of  that 
party  was  maintained,  and  it  was  yet  able  successfully  to 
ward  off  the  assailment  of  sectional  factionists  and  pre 
serve  the  peace  of  the  republic.  It  will  be  hereafter  seen 
that  this  same  principle  constituted  the  leading  feature 
of  the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  and  imparted  to 
them  their  chief  value.  I  read  the  resolutions  with  at 
tention,  and  stated  to  Mr.  Dickinson  my  warm  approval 
of  them,  when  he  told  me  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
at  some  early  day  to  offer  them  for  adoption  in  the  Sen 
ate,  which  he  accordingly  did  some  two  weeks  thereafter, 
when  a  curious  and  somewhat  characteristic  scene  occur 
red.  Mr.  Dickinson's  resolutions  having  been  presented, 
were  then  lying  on  the  clerk's  table  ready  to  be  printed, 
after  which  that  gentleman,  as  he  had  already  announced, 


ME.  CALHOUN,  ME.  .DICKINSON,  AND  MR.  CASS.        78 

intended  calling  them  up  for  consideration,  when  Mr. 
Calhoun  walked  up  to  the  place  where  they  were  depos 
ited,  took  them  from  the  table  for  perusal,  and,  after  hav 
ing  read  them  over,  walked  behind  the  Vice  President's 
chair  and  beckoned  me  to  come  to  him.  I  joined  him 
accordingly,  whereupon  he,  in  a  very  excited  manner, 
called  my  attention  to  the  phraseology  of  Mr.  Dickinson's' 
aforesaid  resolutions,  and  said  that  they  were  worse  than 
the  Wilmot  Proviso ;  that  the  constitutional  doctrine  set 
forth  in  them  was  infinitely  dangerous,  and  concluded  by 
declaring  that  he  intended  to  denounce  them  in  the  most 
emphatic  manner  whenever  Mr.  Dickinson  should  call 
them  from  the  table.  I  was  most  deeply  and  painfully 
surprised,  conceiving,  as  I  did,  that  the  adoption  of  just 
such  resolutions  as  Mr.  Dickinson  had  offered  by  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress,  and  the  speedy  acquiescence  in  the 
declaration  of  principle  which  they  contained,  would  ef 
fectually  guard  the  quiet  of  the  country  by  defeating  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  policy,  or  the'policy  of  excluding  slavery 
from  the  territories  of  the  Union  by  congressional  action, 
and  would  thus  rescue  the  South  and  her  cherished  lo 
cal  interests  % from  menaced  subversion.  I  expostulated 
mildly  and  respectfully  with  Mr.  Calhoun  against  pursu 
ing  the  course  which  he  had  avowed  his  determination 
previously  to  adopt,  and,  without  incurring  the  hazard  of 
inflaming  him  additionally  by  informing  him  that  my  ad 
hesion  to  the  resolutions  of  Mr.  Dickinson  had  been  al 
ready  pledged,  I  proceeded  to  the  seat  of  General  Cass, 
informed  him  of  what  had  just  occurred,  and  this  gentle 
man,  at  my  instance,  went  with  me  to  the  seat  of  Mr. 
Dickinson,  and  united  his  efforts  with  mine  in  persuading 

D 


74  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

him  that  he  would  decline  pressing  the  Senate  to  a  vote 
upon  his  resolutions  until  a  better  understanding  could 
be  had,  so  as,  if  possible,  to  avoid  any  division  among 
those  who  were  united  in  opposing  the  adoption  of  any 
restrictive  legislation  in  regard  to  slavery  in  the  territo 
ries.  Mr.  Dickinson,  with  a  display  of  that  conciliatory 
and  obliging  temper  for  which  all  who  know  him  are 
prepared  to  give  him  credit,  declared  at  once  that  he 
would  not  urge  the  Senate  to  action  upon  his  resolutions 
immediately,  that  he  would  call  them  up  in  a  few  days 
for  consideration ;  and  that,  after  having  concisely  dis 
cussed  them,  as  he  had  it  in  contemplation  to  do,  and  aft 
er  having  thus  set  himself  right  in  the  view  of  his  own 
particular  constituents,  he  should  be  willing  that  the  res 
olutions  should  then  lie  upon  the  table  until  all  interest 
ed  in  preserving  the  peace  of  the  country  should  be  ready 
to  take  some  decided  legislation  on  the  matters  embraced 
therein.  This  arrangement  being  made  known  to  Mr. 
Calhoun,  he  acquiesced  therein,  and  thus  for  a  short  pe 
riod  an  extended  and  unprofitable  controversy  in  the 
Senate  upon  the  territorial  question  was  avoided.  It  is 
due  to  Mr.  Dickinson  to  state  here  that  he  afterward  was 
heard  at  considerable  length  in  exposition  of  the  true 
meaning  of  the  resolutions  which  he  had  offered,  and  in 
vindication  of  the  principle  of  non-intervention  which  they 
set  forth,  and  that  he  delivered  on  that  occasion  a  man 
ly,  well-reasoned,  and  eminently  patriotic  speech,  which 
greatly  enhanced  his  reputation  both  as  a  statesman  and 
orator. 

I  should  mention  here  that,  early  in  the  session  of 
Congress,  General  Cass,  in  an  interview  which  I  had  with 


THE  NICHOLSON  LETTER.  75 

him,  informed  me  that  he  had  just  received  a  letter  from 
Mr,  Nicholson,  of  Tennessee,  then  an  ardent  political 
friend  of  his,  as  I  certainly  was  myself,  requesting  an 
expression  of  his  views  on  the  question  just  noticed,  and 
that  he  had  drawn  up  a  reply  thereto,  which  he  desired 
me  to  read.  I  read  it  accordingly,  made  several  com 
paratively  immaterial  suggestions  in  regard  to  the  phra 
seology,  which  he  kindly  consented  to  modify,  when  I 
urged  him  to  give  publication  to  the  correspondence  at 
once,  being  well  satisfied  that  it  was  eminently  important 
that  all  proper  efforts  should  be  made  to  get  the  general 
mind  of  the  country  matured  as  soon  as  possible  upon 
the  new  and  difficult  question  so  ably  discussed  by  Gen 
eral  Cass  in  that  now  far-famed  letter.  He  agreed,  in 
case  his  political  friends  generally  in  Congress  should 
regard  the  publication  of  the  letter  as  desirable,  to  allow 
it  to  be  inserted  in  the  newspapers  without  delay.  I 
then  drew  up  a  formal  letter  to  General  Cass,  asking  the 
publication  of  this  letter,  to  which  I  took  care  to  obtain 
the  signatures  of  a  considerable  number  of  congressional 
members  alike  from  the  North  and  from  the  South,  and 
it  was  thereupon  given  to  the  public. 

Much  has  been  said  at  different  times  both  in  censure 
and  in  commendation  of  this  letter — far  more,  perhaps, 
than  was  either  needful  or  advantageous.  It  has  been 
accused  of  vagueness  and  ambiguity  by  some,  while  oth 
ers  have  not  hesitated  to  speak  of  it  as  one  of  the  hap 
piest  emanations  of  its  distinguished  author.  For  my 
own  part,  though  I  have  never  for  a  moment  regretted 
my  instrumentality  in  procuring  its  publication  in  the 
manner  described,  and  though  I  do  yet  most  fully  con- 


76  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS, 

cur  in  the  leading  idea  embodied  in  it,  that  the  question 
of  whether  slavery  should  or  should  not  be  allowed  to 
exist  in  the  new  territories,  might  safely  and  properly 
have  been  "left  to  the  people  of  the  confederacy  in  their 
respective  local  governments,"  yet  have  I  never  thought 
that  the  Nicholson  Letter  was  in  all  respects  so  explicit 
in  its  phraseology  as  it  might  have  been,  or  equal,  in 
point  of  mere  literary  finish,  to  many  of  the  numerous 
productions  of  its  venerable  author's  most  gifted  pen. 
General  Cass  certainly  owed  his  nomination  for  the  pres 
idency  by  the  Democratic  party  in  1848  in  some  degree 
to  the  sound  and  conservative  doctrine  which  he  had 
dared  thus  seasonably  to  avow,  and  I  shall  ever  feel 
proud  of  having  zealously  sustained  him  in  the  presiden 
tial  contest  which  soon  ensued,  as  the  bold  and  uncom 
promising  champion  of  the  principle  of  non-intervention  ; 
which  principle  was  destined,  in  the  perilous  crisis  of 
1850,  to  become  the  distinguishing  feature  of  those  meas 
ures  of  compromise  and  adjustment,  the  introduction  and 
successful  advocacy  of  which  were  to  gild  the  evening 
of  Mr.  Clay's  eventful  life  with  a  moral  effulgence  which 
can  never  become  extinct. 

I  should  gladly  close  this  chapter  with  the  tender  of 
my  humble  tribute  of  applause  to  the  venerable  octoge 
narian  statesman  who  has  been  thus  incidentally  alluded 
to.  No  one  admires  him  more  than  I  do,  and  no  one  has 
more  reason  to  cherish  for  him  a  fervent  and  solid  attach 
ment.  But  what  can  my  humble  pen  record,  either  of 
his  rare  moral  graces  or  his  eminent  public  services, 
which  is  not  already  familiarly  known  to  his  grateful 
and  admiring  countrymen  or  to  the  world  at  large  ?  He 


GENEKAL   CASS.  77 

has  himself  written  and  spoken  so  often  and  so  ably,  he 
has  so  long  been  the  honored  incumbent  of  high  official 
positions,  and  has  so  little  at  any  time  sought  to  conceal 
either  his  conduct  or  his  motives  from  the  view  of  men, 
that  I  might  justly  despair,  were  I  even  sufficiently  pre 
sumptuous  to  hazard  the  effort,  to  add  in  the  least  degree 
to  the  fullness  and  brightness  of  that  fame  which  already 
challenges  the  admiration  alike  of  his  own  countrymen 
and  of  the  dwellers  in  other  lands,  and  before  the  mild 
and  simple  grandeur  of  which  even  the  living  calumnia 
tors  of  party  and  of  faction  have  been  at  last  completely 
humbled  into  silence. 

"'Ser'us  in  coelum  redeasP"1 


78  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

Proceedings  upon  the  Wilmot  Proviso  during  the  Congressional  Session 
of  1847,  '8. — Mr.  Clayton's  Compromise  Bill,  and  its  unfortunate  Defeat 
in  the  House  of  Representatives. — General  Cass  as  the  Presidential 
Candidate  of  the  Democratic  Party  in  1848.  — The  Contest  between 
himself  and  General  Taylor  by  no  means  of  a  sectional  Character. — 
Election  of  the  latter. — Appearance  of  William  L.  Yancey  at  the  Balti 
more  Convention  of  1848,  and  the  prompt  Eejection  by  that  Body  of 
his  celebrated  Protection  Proposition.  —  Unfortunate  Division  of  the 
Strength  of  the  Democratic  Party  in  1848  between  the  Hunkers  and 
Barnburners,  resulting  in  the  Nomination  of  Martin  Van  Buren  and 
Charles  Francis  Adams  by  the  Buffalo  Convention. — Mr.  Gott's  Reso 
lution. — Declaration,  as  early  as  1843,  by  Messrs.  Adams,  Slade,  Gid- 
dings,  and  others  in  Favor  of  dissolving  the  Federal  Union  in  the  Event 
of  the  Annexation  of  Texas. — Inflammatory  Address  issued  by  these 
Gentlemen. — Author's  first  acquaintance  with  John  Quincy  Adams  and 
his  accomplished  Lady. — Commendatory  Notice  of  his  Life  and  Char 
acter. — Parallel  between  John  Quincy  Adams  and  John  C.  Calhoun. 

EARLY  in  the  congressional  session  of  1847,  '8,  a  test 
vote  upon  the  Wilmot  Proviso  had  been  taken  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  the  proposition  embody 
ing  the  essential  feature  of  that  Proviso  had  been  laid 
upon  the  table  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Broadhead,  a  mem 
ber  from  Pennsylvania.  This  result  was  looked  upon  by 
the  friends  of  domestic  quiet  at  the  time  as  a  most  favor 
able  symptom  ;  but  it  was  supposed  by  some  of  the  most 
judicious  and  experienced  personages  then  in  Congress 
that  it  would  be  best  to  guard  against  future  danger  by 
having  the  vexed  territorial  question  submitted  for  adju- 


WILMOT  PEOVISO.  79 

dication,  at  as  early  a  period  as  practicable,  to  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States ;  it  being  then  hoped 
that  the  decision  of  that  high  tribunal,  touching  the  con 
stitutionality  of  legislative  measures  of  restriction,  would 
command  the  respect  of  the  great  body  of  the  American 
people,  and  render  the  clamors  of  sectional  demagogues, 
whether  in  the  North  or  in  the  South,  thenceforward  pow 
erless.  Accordingly,  Mr.  John  M.  Clayton,  of  Delaware, 
after  advising  extensively  with  senators  and  representa 
tives  of  the  greatest  weight  and  influence  in  their  respect 
ive  states,  and  whom  he  knew,  at  the  same  time,  to  be 
solicitous  to  do  what  they  could  to  suppress  the  spirit  of 
discord  then  visibly  manifesting  itself  in  various  quarters, 
as  a  member  of  a  select  committee  of  the  Senate,  to  whom 
had  been  referred  the  Oregon  Bill,  reported  said  bill  back 
to  the  Senate,  with  amendments  establishing  territorial 
governments  for  New  Mexico  and  California  in  addition, 
and  containing  a  clause,  likewise,  providing,  in  a  very 
careful  and  precise  manner,  for  the  judicial  arbitrament 
referred  to  in  relation  to  all  three  of  said  territories.  It 
is  obvious  that,  could  this  bill  have  become  a  law,  sec 
tional  agitation  would  have  been,  at  least  for  a  while,  sup 
pressed.  Faction  had  not  then  grown  strong  enough,  ei 
ther  in  the  North  or  in  the  South,  successfully  to  resist 
the  deliberate  adjudication  of  that  grave  and  solemn  tri 
bunal  where  a  Marshall  and  a  Story  had  so  recently  sat, 
and  where  there  were  still  judges  to  be  found  worthy  of 
the  better  and  purer  days  of  the  republic. 

But  the  Clayton  Compromise  Bill,  after  passing  the  Sen 
ate  by  a  vote  of  33  yeas  to  22  nays,  was  fated  to  receive 
its  quietus  in  the  House  from  a  hand  least  expected  to  in- 


80  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

flict  a  blow  so  unfortunate.  Mr.  Stephens,  of  Georgia, 
having  moved  that  the  said  bill  do  lie  upon  the  table,  the 
motion  prevailed  by  what  was  very  nearly  a  sectional 
vote,  only  eight  Southern  members  having  yielded  their 
support  to  it.  I  have  never  heard  from  Mr.  Stephens 
himself  what  particular  reasons  influenced  his  course  on 
this  occasion,  but  have  been  repeatedly  told,  and  suppose 
such  to  have  been  the  case,  that  this  gentleman,  having 
maturely  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  African  slavery 
in  all  the  recently  acquired  territory  had  been  uprooted 
by  antecedent  Mexican  legislation,  and  that  therefore  if 
the  question  propounded  by  the  Clayton  Bill  should  be 
submitted  to  the  Supreme  Court,  a  decision  was  to  be  ap 
prehended  which  would  prove  fatal  to  the  policy  then  so 
warmly  cherished  by  a  portion  of  the  Southern  people 
of  extending  slavery  into  the  vacant  territories,  deemed 
it  unsafe  to  risk  the  action  thereof.  I  have  also  heard 
that  the  course  of  Mr.  Stephens  and  his  distinguished  col 
league  from  Georgia,  Mr.  Toombs,  in  refusing  to  vote  for 
the  appropriation  of  money  for  carrying  into  effect  the 
then  recently  ratified  treaty  with  Mexico,  was  controlled 
by  similar  views.  However  this  may  be,  both  Mr.  Ste 
phens  and  Mr.  Toombs  were  for  a  time  very  much  cen 
sured  by  certain  overheated  persons  in  the  South  on  ac 
count  of  their  conduct  at  this  period,  and  motives  were  in 
several  quarters  charged  to  each  of  them,  the  operation  of 
which  I  rejoice  never  myself  to  have  suspected,  and  which 
all  just-minded  men  must  now  admit  to  have  been  wholly 
unmerited.  I  can  not  doubt  now,  though,  any  more  than 
I  did  sixteen  years  ago,  that  even  had  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  republic  at  that  time  decided  that  slavery  had  no 


CLAYTON  COMPKOMISE.  81 

legal  and  authorized  existence  in  New  Mexico  and  Cali 
fornia,  and  that  even  had  Congress,  acquiescing  in  that 
decision,  refused  to  adopt  enactments  for  its  establishment 
therein,  the  people  of  the  South  would  have  rested  quiet 
under  this  determination,  and  the  painful  scenes  through 
which  we  have  been  lately  passing,  as  well  as  the  fearful 
agitations  which  preceded  them,  might  have  been  happi 
ly  avoided. 

The  Democratic  party,  of  which  General  Cass  was  now 
the  acknowledged  chief,  and  whom  they  put  in  nomina 
tion  for  the  presidency  in  the  Convention  held  in  the  city 
of  Baltimore  in  the  month  of  May,  1848,  adopted  a  reso 
lution  at  the  same  time  which  pledged  that  party,  and 
the  candidates  chosen  to  represent  it  in  the  pending  pres 
idential  contest,  to  tc  a  vigilant  and  consistent  adherence 
to  those  principles  and  compromises  of  the  Constitution 
which  are  broad  enough  and  strong  enough  to  uphold 
the  Union  as  it  was,  as  it  is,  and  as  it  shall  be,  in  the  full 
expansion  of  the  energies  and  capacity  of  this  great  and 
progressive  people." 

At  this  precise  moment  indications  first  clearly  display 
themselves,  not  of  "  an  irrepressible  conflict"  between  an 
tagonistic  elements  imbedded  in  the  Constitution,  but  be 
tween  two  rampant  and  reckless  local  factions,  neither  of 
which  was  truly  friendly  to  the  compromises  of  the  Con 
stitution  or  the  permanent  repose  of  the  republic ;  which 
two  factions,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  sequel,  were  there 
after  to  struggle  with  each  other  and  with  the  two  great 
conservative  parties  then  existing ;  and  while  gaining 
from  time  to  time  fresh  accessions  to  their  respective 
ranks,  or  losing  a  portion  of  their  strength  temporarily, 

D2 


82  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

from  the  operation  of  accidental  causes,  were  in  a  few 
years  to  grow  strong  enough  to  shake  the  republic  to  its 
foundation,  and  to  make  themselves  responsible  before* 
all  generations  for  the  most  absurd,  unnecessary,  and  un 
natural  war  that  the  combined  wickedness  and  folly  of 
man  have  ever  yet  waged  upon  this  terrestrial  planet. 
I  will"  make  myself  more  plain  on  this  point  by  a  short 
historic  recital.  While  the  Democratic  Convention  was 
in  session  in  Baltimore,  a  gentleman  from  the  State  of 
Alabama  appeared  therein,  whose  name  is  now  familiar 
to  the  ears  of  all  intelligent  men  on  both  sides  of  the  At 
lantic.  I  saw  this  personage  in  "Washington  on  his  way  to 
Baltimore,  and  I  learned  by  accident  what  was  the  nature 
of  his  mission  to  the  latter  city.  This  gentleman  (of 
course  I  am  alluding  to  Mr.  William  L.  Yancey)  offered 
to  the  consideration  of  the  Convention  the  following  res 
olution  : 

"Resolved,  That  the  doctrine  of  non-interference  with 
the  rights  of  property  of  any  portion  of  the  people  of  this 
confederacy,  be  it  in  the  states  or  territories  thereof,  by 
any  other  than  the  parties  interested  in  them,  is  the  true  re 
publican  doctrine  recognized  by  this  body." 

It  is  evident  that  it  was  intended  by  this  adroit  move 
ment  to  get  the  whole  Democratic  party  committed  against 
any  legislation  in  the  territories,  either  on  the  part  of 
Congress  or  the  local  Legislatures,  and  to  prevent  even 
any  action  by  conventions  called  for  the  purpose  of  form 
ing  state  constitutions  with  a  view  to  admission  into  the 
Federal  Union  in  any  of  said  territories,  which  should  be 
of  a  nature  to  affect  the  rights  of  property  in  slaves,  un 
less  with  the  consent  of  the  individual  owners.  A  prop- 


MK.  YANCEY  AND  THE  TROJAN   HOUSE.  83 

osition  so  absurd  and  dangerous  could  receive  but  few 
votes  in  a  Convention'  constituted  of  such  intelligent  and 
patriotic  men  as  were  then  assembled  in  Baltimore,  and 
accordingly,  out  of  252  -votes,  only  36  persons  were  found 
radical  enough  to  follow  Mr.  Yancey's  lead.  The  Trojan 
liorse  brought  into  the  Democratic  citadel  was  driven  be 
yond  its  ramparts  before  the  armed  warriors  which  it  in 
closed  could  be  disgorged  from  its  sides  for  the  perpetra 
tion  of  the  mischief  contemplated.  We  shall  after  a  while 
see  this  same  cunningly-constructed  equine  machine  make 
its  ominous  appearance  in  the  cities  of  Charleston  and 
Baltimore  under  the  care  of  the  self-same  political  groom, 
and  shall  see  it  unhappily  accorded  there  a  very  different 
reception  indeed. 

While  this  attempt  was  making  to  transform  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  into  a  secession  faction,  another  effort  was 
in  progress,  in  an  opposite  quarter,  to  convert  the  same 
party  into  a  mere  Free-soil  organization.  I  shall  cite 
here  the  short  and  precise  description  of  the  latter  move 
ment,  of  which  the  Democratic  nominating  Convention 
in  Baltimore  was  likewise  the  chosen  theatre,  from  the 
pages  of  Mr.  Greeley's  Conflict.  "  Two  delegations  from 
New  York  presenting  themselves  to  this  Convention — 
that  of  the  Free-soilers,  Radicals,  or  Barnburners,  whose 
leader  was  Samuel  Young,  and  that  of  the  Conservatives, 
or  Hunkers,  whose  chief  was  Daniel  S.  Dickinson — the 
Convention  attempted  to  split  the  difference  by  admitting 
both,  and  giving  each  half  the  vote  to  which  the  state 
was  entitled.  This  the  Barnburners  rejected,  leaving 
the  Convention,  and  refusing  to  be  bound  by  its  conclu 
sions.  The  greater  body  of  them  heartily  joined  in  the 


84  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

Free-soil  movements,  which  culminated  in  a  National 
Convention  at  Buffalo,  whereby  Martin  Van  Buren  was 
nominated  for  President,  with  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
of  Massachusetts,  for  Vice-President." 

The  last  of  the  series  of  resolutions  adopted  at  this 
same  Buffalo  Convention  shortly  afterward  raised,  in  a 
very  sharp  and  distinct  manner,  the  issue  between  the 
Kadicals  or  Sectionalists  of  the  North  and  the  Eadicals 
or  Sectionalists  of  the  South,  which  was  to  remain  a 
standing  and  unsettled  issue  for  a  series  of  years,  and  was 
to  grow,  in  the  imaginations  of  some,  into  an  "irrepressi 
ble  conflict,"  but  which,  in  point  of  fact,  was  never  either 
a  necessary,  safe,  or  expedient  issue,  and  has  since 
wrought  incalculable  mischiefs  to  the  whole  land,  the 
vestiges  of  which  a  century  will  scarcely  be  able  to  efface. 

In  the  month  of  December,  1848,  a  resolution  was  in 
troduced  into  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  by  Mr.  Gott, 
of  New  York,  the  object  of  which  was  to  prohibit  the 
trade  in  slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  This  resolu 
tion,  in  itself,  was  perhaps  not  justly  subject  to  objection 
or  censure,  but  its  discussion,  in  connection  with  the  cir 
cumstance  that  certain  slaves  in  the  ownership  of  mem 
bers  of  Congress  from  the  South  were  about  that  time  il 
legally  abstracted  from  their  possessors,  begot  very  fierce 
and  acrimonious  discussion,  and  induced  a  number  of  the 
Southern  senators  and  representatives  then  in  Washington 
to  hold  a  meeting  for  consultation  purposes,  which  meeting 
appointed  a  committee  to  draft  a  suitable  address  to  the 
people  of  the  South.  This  address  was  drawn  up  by  Mr. 
Calhoun,  was  exceedingly  calm  and  decorous  in  its  tone, 
indulged  in  no  menacing  language  whatever,  and  took  the 


FIRST  SECESSION  PROPOSITION.  85 

ground  emphatically  in  behalf  of  the  South,  that  all  which 
the  slaveholding  section  demanded  was  to  be  let  alone; 
asking  no  special  protection  for  slaves  at  the  hands  of 
Congress,  and  only  desiring  that  the  well-known  guaran 
ties  of  the  Constitution  should  be  faithfully  executed. 
Certain  public  writers  have  bitterly  denounced  this  pro 
ceeding,  charging  even  that  it  was  a  rank  disunion  move 
ment,  when  it  was,  in  truth,  precisely  the  reverse;  and 
yet  it  is  a  most  noticeable  fact  that  these  same  writers 
have  taken  care  never  to  apply  the  language  of  reproach 
to  John  Quincy  Adams,  William  Slade,  Joshua  E.  Gid- 
dings,  and  others,  who,  as  early  as  1843,  in  an  able  and 
eloquent  address  to  the  people  of  the  free  states,  did  not 
hesitate  to  declare,  in  connection  with  the  measure  of 
Texan  annexation  then  under  contemplation,  that  ''an 
nexation  effected  by  any  act  or  proceeding  of  the  Federal 
government,  or  any  of  its  departments,  would  be  identical 
with  the  dissolution  of  the  Union"  and  adding,  "it  would 
be  a  violation  of  our  national  compact,  its  objects  and  de 
signs,  and  the  great  elementary  principles  which  entered 
into  its  formation,  of  a  character  so  deep  and  fundamen 
tal,  and  would  be  an  attempt  to  eternize  an  institution 
and  a  power  of  a  nature  so  unjust  in  themselves,  so  inju 
rious  to  the  interests  and  abhorrent  to  the  feelings  of  the 
people  of  the  free  states,  as,  in  our  opinion,  not  only  in 
evitably  to  result  in  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  l>ut  fully  to 
justify  it ;  and  we  not  only  assert  that  the  people  of  the 
free  states  ought  not  to  submit  to  it,  but  we  say  with  confi 
dence  they  would  not  submit  to  it." 

I  seize  with  pleasure  the  opportunity  presented  of  ex 
pressing  frankly  some  opinions  which  I  have  long  enter- 


86  SCYLLA   AND   CHARYBDIS. 

tained  in  reference  to  John  Quincy  Adams.  I  was  not  so 
fortunate  as  to  be  upon  the  list  of  his  personal  and  con 
fidential  friends.  I  had  been  introduced  to  him  in  the 
lobby  of  the  House  of  Representatives  on  one  occasion, 
without  holding  any  conversation  with  him,  a  circum 
stance  which  I  shall  now  forever  regret ;  but  I  had  for 
some  years  felt  for  his  character  and  abilities  a  profound 
respect.  On  the  New  Year's  day  immediately  preceding 
his  decease  I  had  gone  to  his  hospitable  mansion,  with  a 
large  number  of  his  fellow-citizens  besides,  to  pay  the 
customary  respects  to  Mrs.  Adams  and  himself.  The  ap 
pearance  of  both  these  venerable  personages  on  that  oc 
casion  painfully  indicated  the  pressure  of  increasing 
years,  and  both  of  them  went  through  the  tiresome  scene 
of  receiving  the  miscellaneous  greetings  of  the  thousands 
who  had  come  to  do  them  deserved  homage  with  an  evi 
dent  sense  of  weariness  and  exhaustion.  It  had  chanced 
that,  as  early  as  the  year  1824,  when  I  had  scarcely  at 
tained  to  manhood,  I  had  met  Mrs.  Adams  at  the  Bed 
ford  Springs,  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  whither  she 
had  gone  for  the  restoration  of  her  health,  which  was 
then  supposed  to  be  more  or  less  impaired.  The  condi 
tion  of  my  own  health  at  the  time  had  brought  me  to  this 
place  also;  and  as  the  fashionable  season  had  not  then 
commenced,  and  there  were  but  few  visitants  at  the. 
Springs,  I  was  one  of  seven  or  eight  persons,  including 
Mrs.  Adams,  her  fair  niece,  Miss  Hellen,  and  her  son 
John,  who  for  several  weeks  had  seats  at  the  same  pri 
vate  table.  A  more  high-bred,  intelligent,  and  affable 
lady  I  do  not  remember  at  any  time  to  have  encoun 
tered.  The  next  time  I  saw  Mrs.  Adams  was  at  a  levee 


MR.  AND   MRS.  ADAMS.  87 

given  by  the  French,  minister  in  Washington,  just  two 
days  before  the  inauguration  of  her  husband  as  President 
of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Adams  was  then  President  elect 
by  the  recent  action  of  the  House  of  Kepresentatives. 
He  himself  was  not  at  the  levee,  but,  as  was  certainly  to 
have  been  expected,  his  accomplished  better  half  was  the 
great  centre  of  attraction — all  the  political  friends  of  the 
incoming  President  especially  being  disposed  to  evince 
the  satisfaction  which  they  felt  at  the  recent  promotion 
of  their  favorite  by  the  rendition  of  fitting  homage  to 
Mrs.  Adams,  and  many  others  being  attracted  to  her 
presence  by  her  own  engaging  qualities.  More  than 
twenty  years  then  glided  by  before  I  beheld  this  es 
teemed  lady  again,  on  the  New  Year's  occasion  already 
referred  to.  Nor  did  I  then  make  known  to  her  that  we 
had  ever  before  met,  as  I  could  scarcely  suppose  that  she 
would  bear  in  remembrance  thus  long  the  humble  and 
undistinguished  youth  with  whom  she  had  so  accidental 
ly  formed  a  passing  acquaintance  at  the  renowned  Penn 
sylvania  watering-place. 

To  return  to  Mr,  Adams.  I  saw  him  on  the  clay  be 
fore  his  death,  or  perhaps  two  or  three  days  antecedent, 
in  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  Sunday, 
attending  divine  service  there,  and  was  very  much  struck 
with  his  pale  and  feeble  appearance,  as  I  know  many  oth 
ers  besides  to  have  been.  A  day  or  two  after  his  sudden 
decease,  a  gentleman  who  has  since  filled  several  highly 
respectable  official  positions,  Caleb  Lyon,  of  Lyonsdale, 
called  on  me  at  my  residence  on  the  Georgetown  Heights, 
and  handed  me  for  perusal  a  light  and  vivacious,  but 
highly  humorous  and  piquant  poetic  effusion,  which  he 


88  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

told  rne  Mr.  Adams  had  addressed  to  a  charming  young 
lady  of  his  acquaintance  only  forty-eight  hours  before  his 
decease.  The  aged  author  had,  as  Mr.  Lyons  informed 
me,  at  the  request  of  the  latter,  supplied  him  with  a  copy 
of  these  verses,  which  he  seemed,  and  most  naturally  too, 
to  prize  very  highly. 

In  my  judgment,  the  country  has  produced  but  few 
men  who  have  left  behind  them  more  multiplied  evi 
dences  of  elevated  patriotism,  of  private  virtue,  and  of 
varied  ability  and  attainments  than  the  eminent  states 
man  of  New  England  to  whom  I  am  now  referring.  This 
much  all  unprejudiced  men  must,  I  think,  every  where 
admit.  I  can  certainly  not  suspect  myself  of  being  de 
luded  by  feelings  either  of  personal  partiality  or  identity 
of  political  opinions.  I  was,  according  to  my  ability,  a 
zealous  opponent  of  the  administration  of  Mr.  Adams 
while  that  administration  was  yet  in  progress,  and  it  is 
known  by  my  acquaintances  that  I  was  far  from  approv 
ing  many  of  his  public  acts  during  the  closing  years  of 
his  life.  But  a  laborious  and  dispassionate  examination 
of  the  leading  incidents  in  his  long  official  career  has  ef 
fectually  vanquished  early  prejudices,  and  will  now  ena 
ble  me  to  speak  of  him,  I  believe,  with  something  of  the 
cool  impartiality  which  the  future  historian  may  be  ex 
pected  to  display.  More  than  thirty  years  have  gone  by 
since  Mr.  Adams  was  defeated  by  his  distinguished  mili 
tary  rival  for  the  first  office  in  the  gift  of  the  American 
people ;  and  it  may  be  now  safely  asserted,  that  never 
since  that  striking  period  in  American  annals,  has  any 
citizen  occupied  the  chair  of  state  who,  while  performing 
the  varied  and  complex  duties  of  President,  offered  clear- 


JOHN   QUINCY  ADAMS.  89 

er  and  more  numerous  proofs  of  inflexible  honesty  of 
purpose,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  affairs,  unremitting  in 
dustry  in  the  performance  of  official  duty,  entire  exemp 
tion  from  mere  party  or  personal  prejudice,  moderation, 
mingled  with  firmness,  in  all  critical  emergencies,  mild 
and  unassuming  urbanity  both  in  official  and  social  inter 
course,  with  a  vigilance  that  never  winked,  and  an  ener 
gy  that  never  knew  exhaustion.  Mr.  Adams  was,  per 
haps,  upon  the  whole,  the  most  highly  cultivated  public 
man,  in  many  respects,  that  our  country  has  yet  known, 
and  it  is  understood  that  he  labored  strenuously  to  the 
last  moment  of  his  protracted  life  to  increase  his  stores  of 
useful  knowledge.  There  was  no  department  of  science 
of  which  he  was  altogether  ignorant.  He  had  traversed 
the  whole  wide  domain  of  general  literature ;  his  knowl 
edge  of  history,  both  ancient  and  modern,  was  alike  thor 
ough  and  minute ;  his  imagination,  like  that  of  Mr.  Burke, 
seemed  to  grow  more  fertile,  vigorous,  and  resplendent  as 
he  advanced  in  years ;  his  memory,  as  well  of  men  as  of 
things,  was  such  as  it  has  been  seldom  given  man  to  pos 
sess  ;  his  oratorical  powers,  not  supposed,  I  have  heard, 
to  have  been  very  remarkable  in  early  life,  were  such, 
during  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  congressional  exist 
ence,  as  compelled  even  his  bitterest  political  foes  to  ac 
quiesce  in  his  claim  to  be  recognized  as  "  The  Old  Man 
Eloquent,"  and  ever  secured  to  him  the  unbroken  and  in 
terested  attention  of  those  who  hated  him  with  an  acri 
mony  never  yet  surpassed,  but  who  felt  awed  into  un 
murmuring  respect  under  the  magical  influence  of  his  un 
premeditated  and  truly  electrical  utterances.  That  Mr. 
Adams  was  much,  and  unjustly,  embittered  toward  the 


90  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

South  in  the  evening  of  his  remarkable  career,  I  think 
will  hardly  be  now  in  any  quarter  denied.  That  he  had 
some  cause  for  alienation  and  for  unkindness  seems  to  me 
to  be  equally  apparent.  His  opinions  in  regard  to  the 
baneful  influence  of  African  slavery,  and  his  zealous  op 
position  to  its  future  extension  into  the  vacant  domain  of 
the  republic,  were  not  less  sincerely  entertained  than  were 
precisely  opposite  views  by  his  sectional  adversaries ;  and 
perhaps  his  prejudices  toward  the  South  were  not  stron 
ger  than  those  of  Mr.  Calhoun  toward  the  North,  who, 
throughout  his  whole  public  career,  was  never  known,  as 
I  have  learned,  to  place  his  feet  for  a  moment  upon  North 
ern  soil;  and  from  whose  lips  I  heard  the  declaration, 
more  than  once,  during  the  year  1848,  when  General  Tay 
lor  and  General  Cass  were  contesting  for  the  presidency 
of  the  Union,  that  he  would  prefer  the  election  to  that 
place  of  any  respectable  Southern  planter  whatever  to  any 
man  of  Northern  birth  and  residence;  though  it  is  possible 
that  Mr.  Calhoun  was,  after  all,  not  altogether  so  averse 
to  his  fellow-citizens  of  the  free  states  as  he  seemed  to  im 
agine  himself  to  be,  inasmuch  as  I  remember  his  declar 
ing  to  me  on  one  occasion,  and  about  the  period  just  re 
ferred  to,  that  he  should  be  quite  content  to  see  George 
M.  Dallas  elevated  to  the  presidency,  as  his  political  opin 
ions  were  known  to  be  in  the  main  such  as  Southern  men 
were  inclined  to  approve,  and  as  he  was  not  only  a  gen 
tleman  himself,  in  character,  person,  and  demeanor,  but 
also  the  son  of  a  gentleman — he  (Mr.  Calhoun)  having 
known  in  former  days  very  intimately,  as  he  said,  the 
father  of  Mr.  Dallas,  for  whom  he  ever  cherished  a  very 
special  esteem  and  kindness. 


J.  Q.  ADAMS  AND  J.  C.  CALHOUN  COMPARED.    91 

Between  John  C.  Calhoun  and  John  Quincy  Adams 
there  were  remarkable  points  both  of  resemblance  and 
of  dissimilitude.  They  were  both  men  of  undoubted  per 
sonal  integrity ;  alike  amiable  and  exemplary  in  domes 
tic  and  in  social  life ;  fervent  lovers  of  their  country,  yet 
of  decided  local  bias ;  assiduous  and  untiring  in  their  ap 
plication  to  business,  and  cherishing  equally  the  strictest 
notions  of frugality  in  the  appropriation  and  expenditure 
of  the  public  money.  So  far  were  both  these  statesmen 
from  being  personally  tainted  with/rawc?,  or  even  sus 
pected  of  a  disposition  to  participate  in  corrupt  bargain 
ing  and  traffic  in  connection  with  concerns  of  govern 
ment,  that  it. may  be  now  safely  asserted  that  no  man 
who  justly  suspected  himself  of  gross  obliquity  of  pur 
pose  would  have  even  ventured  to  challenge  familiar  in 
tercourse  with  either  of  these  sternly  upright  men.  One 
of  them  was  principally  a  profound  logician,  while  the  oth 
er  was  a  spirited  and  powerful  debater,  not  pre-eminent 
ly  distinguished  for  argumentative  power,  nor  yet,  indeed, 
wholly  deficient  therein.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  profoundly 
metaphysical  in  his  habits  of  thought,  and  had  penetrated 
deeply  into  all  the  mysterious  arcana  connected  with  the 
fundamental  principles  of  government;  and  he  poured 
forth  occasionally,  in  his  moments  of  highest  exertion, 
such  a  continued  series  of  massive  and  strongly  inter 
linked  deductions,  constantly  advancing  from  one  Alpine 
height  of  argument  to  another,  that  the  mind  of  the  or 
dinary  hearer  was  often  most  painfully  exercised  in  at 
tempting  to  follow  his  giant  intellectual  strides,  and  even 
the  reporters  themselves  complained  that,  with  aching 
and  overpowered  brain,  they  were  often  compelled  to  re- 


92  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

linquish  in  despair  the  arduous  and  impossible  task  of 
marking  down  the  successive  steps  of  his  Herculean 
progress.  Both  Mr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Calhoun  were  mem 
bers  of  Mr.  Monroe's  cabinet,  and  are  understood  to  have 
there  differed,  though  not  unkindly,  upon  several  ques 
tions  of  no  little  magnitude  and  importance.  Mr.  Adams 
has  left  behind  him  the  charge  that  Mr.  Calhoun  voted  in 
that  cabinet  for  yielding  the  Executive  sanction  to  what 
is  known  as  the  Missouri  Compromise ;  while  Mr.  Cal 
houn  asserted,  more  than  once,  in  the  Senate,  in  my  hear 
ing,  that  his  formerly  official  associate  had,  in  making  this 
statement,  committed  a  grave  and  surprising  error  of 
memory.  Who  can  believe  now  that  either  of  these  illus 
trious  statesmen  intended  TO  violate  truth  ? 

At  this  moment,  when  African  slavery  has  been  swept 
from  the  face  of  this  continent  by  the  remorseless  scythe 
of  war,  and  when  all  of  us  must  distinctly  recognize 
the  fact  that  every  vestige  even  of  its  former  existence 
must  inevitably  soon  disappear  forever,  surely,  both  on 
the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  the  proper  time  may  be 
regarded  as  having  arrived  when  even  what  may  have 
been  deemed  gross  errors  of  judgment  in  regard  to  the 
dark  and  difficult  constitutional  question  involved  in 
the  policy  of  restriction  may  at  last  be  forgiven.  When 
such  men  as  Adams,  Webster,  Clay,  Yan  Buren,  Story, 
M'Lane,  and  Curtis  assert  the  power  of  Congress  to  pro 
hibit  the  entrance  of  slavery  into  the  territories  of  the 
Union,  and  when  such  men  as  Calhoun  and  Douglas, 
Taney,  Grier,  Campbell,  and  Nelson  assert  exactly  the 
contrary,  it  seems  to  me  that  ordinary  Christian  charity, 
and  a  becoming  deference  to  acknowledged  intellectual 


PLEA  FOR  PEACE.  93 

power  and  indisputable  integrity  of  character,  might 
prompt  a  decent  and  civil  avoidance  of  rude  and  acrimo 
nious  invective,  either  on  the  part  of  the  advocates  of 
slavery  restriction,  or  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  for 
merly  its  adversaries. 


9-i  SCYLLA  AND   CHAliYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Session  of  Congress  closing  on  the  3d  of  March,  1849. — Important  Test 
Question  raised  by  Mr.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  in  Connection  with  the 
Oregon  Bill,  which  was  then  pending. — Defeat  of  Mr.  Douglas's  Prop 
osition  by  the  unexpected  but  effective  Interposition  of  Mr.  Wrn.  H. 
Seward,  who  had  not  yet  taken  his  Seat  as  a  Senator  from  New  York. 
— Mr.  Seward  at  that  Time  opposed  to  all  Compromise  of  the  Slavery 
Question, — Extract  from  a  memorable  Speech  of  his,  delivered  in  the 
United  States  Senate  in  the  Year  1850,  having  Relation  to  this  Subject. 
— Mr.  Seward's  Cleveland  Speech  in  1848. — Important  Extracts  there 
from. — General  Taylor's  Administration. — Violent  Excitement  begin 
ning  to  rage  both  North  and  South  upon  the  Slavery  Question,  and  in 
Connection  with  the  Admission  of  California. — Unfortunate  non-ac 
tion  Policy  of  General  Taylor's  Administration. — Alarming  Condition 
of  the  Country. — Election  of  Messrs.  Gwin  and  Fremont  United  States 
Senators  from  California. — Attempt  of  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Benton  to 
revive  his  decaying  Popularity  by  becoming  the  Champion  of  Califor- 
nian  Admission. — Efforts  of  the  Author  to  defeat  this  Scheme  of  self 
ish  Ambition.  —  Retrospect  of  Colonel  Benton's  Attempt,  about  the 
Close  of  Mr.  Folk's  Administration,  to  bring  about  the  Rescission  of 
the  Treaty  with  Mexico,  by  which  all  the  territorial  Domain  recently 
acquired  would  have  been  lost  to  the  United  States  but  for  the  Defeat 
of  that  Attempt. — Signal  Defeat  of  this  unpatriotic  Scheme,  and  re 
markable  Particulars  connected  therewith  not  heretofore,  divulged. — 
Colonel  Benton  deprived  in  Democratic  Caucus  of  the  Chairmanship 
of  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  Senate  on  the  Motion  of  the 
Author,  after  a  two-days'  Struggle,  by  a  Majority  of  one  Vote  only. — 
Mr.  Benton's  extraordinary  Attack  on  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Others  in  his 
public  Speech  delivered  in  Missouri  in  the  Summer  of  1848,  and  Mr. 
Calhoun's  overwhelming  Response  thereto,  drawn  up  at  Author's  earn 
est  Instance. — Short  Sketch  of  Colonel  Benton's  public  Character,  and 
Delineation  of  his  intellectual  Qualities. 


OREGON   QUESTION — STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS.          95 

IN  the  last  days  of -the  session  of  Congress  terminating 
on  the  night  of  the  3d  of  March,  1849,  Mr.  Douglas,  of 
Illinois,  raised  an  important  test  question  in  connection 
with  the  bill  then  on  its  passage  for  the  organization  of 
the  new  Territory  of  Oregon,  by  the  introduction  of  the 
following  amendment  thereto : 

"  That  the  line  of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes 
of  north  latitude,  known  as  the  Missouri  Compromise  line, 
as  defined  in  the  eighth  section  of  an  act  entitled  'An  Act 
to  authorize  the  people  of  the  Missouri  Territory  to  form 
a  Constitution  and  state  government,  and  for  the  admis 
sion  of  such  state  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing 
with  the  original  states,  and  to  prohibit  slavery  in  certain 
territories,  approved  March  6th,  1820,'  be,  and  the  same 
is,  hereby  declared  to  extend  to  the  Pacific  Ocean ;  and 
the  said  eighth  section,  together  with  the  compromise 
therein  effected,  is  hereby  revived,  and  declared  to  be  in 
full  force  and  binding  for  the  future  organization  of  the 
territories  of  the  United  States,  in  the  same  sense  and 
with  the  same  understanding  with  which  it  was  origin 
ally  adopted."  This  amendment  was  carried  in  the  Sen 
ate,  but  defeated  in  the  House  by  an  almost  strictly  sec 
tional  vote ;  so  that  the  author  of  "  The  American  Con 
flict"  would  seem  to  be  justified  in  the  following  declara 
tion  which  he  has  made  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  his 
voluminous  and  interesting  work:  "So  Oregon  became 
a  territory  consecrated  to  free  labor  without  compromise 
or  counterbalance,  and  the  Free  States  gave  notice  that 
they  would  not  divide  with  slavery  the  vast  and  hitherto 
free  territories  then  just  acquired  from  MEXICO." 

In  a  well-known  letter  published  in  the  National  In- 


96  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

telligencer,  a  few  weeks  after  the  close  of  the  session  of 
Congress  which  had  now  just  terminated,  Mr.  William  H. 
Seward,  a  newly-elected  senator  from  the  State  of  New 
York,  but  who  had  not  then  taken  his  seat  as  such, 
claimed  much,  and  doubtless  deserved  credit  for  the  suc 
cess  of  his  efforts  on  the  last  night  of  the  session  to  defeat 
all  compromise  of  the  territorial  question  in  the  various 
modes  proposed,  preferring  to  keep  it  open  for  settlement 
by  the  incoming  administration  of  General  Taylor.  This 
gentleman,  it  would  seem,  had  never  believed  in  the  value 
of  legislative  compromises,  and  afterward,  in  a  speech  de 
livered  by  him  in  the  month  of  March,  1850,  when  the 
compromise  enactments  of  that  period  were  under  discus 
sion,  he  used  the  following  memorable  words:  "It  is 
insisted  that  the  admission  of  California  shall  be  attend 
ed  by  a  compromise  of  questions  which  have  arisen  out 
of  slavery,  I  am  opposed  to  any  such  compromise,  in  any 
and  all  the  forms  in  which  it  has  been  proposed,  because, 
while  admitting  the  purity  and  the  patriotism  of  all  from 
whom  it  is  my  misfortune  to  differ,  I  think  all  legislative 
compromises  which  are  not  absolutely  necessary  radical 
ly  wrong  and  essentially  vicious.  They  involve  the  sur 
render  of  the  exercise  of  judgment  and  conscience  on 
distinct  arid  separate  questions,  at  distinct  and  separate 
times,  with  the  indispensable  advantages  it  affords  for 
ascertaining  truth ;  they  involve  a  relinquishment  of 
the  right  to  reconsider  in  future  the  decisions  of  the  pres 
ent  on  questions  prematurely  anticipated ;  and  they  are 
acts  of  usurpation  as  to  future  questions  of  the  province 
of  future  legislators." 

This  gentleman  had  delivered  a  speech  at  Cleveland, 


WILLIAM  H.  SEWAED.  97 

Ohio,  in  1848,  in  which  he  had  doubtless  stated  his  con 
scientious  convictions,  the  spirit  and  character  of  which 
will  be  made  sufficiently  evident  by  the  citation  of  the 
following  striking  extracts :  "  There  are  two  antagonist- 
ical  elements  of  society  in  America,  freedom  and  slavery. 
Freedom  is  in  harmony  with  our  system  of  government, 
and  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  is  therefore  passive 
and  quiescent.  Slavery  is  in  conflict  with  that  system, 
with  justice,  and  with  humanity,  and  is  therefore  organ 
ized,  defensive,  active,  and  perpetually  aggressive. 

"Freedom  insists  on  the  emancipation  and  elevation 
of  labor ;  slavery  demands  a  soil  moistened  with  tears 
and  blood — freedom  a  soil  that  exults  under  the  elastic 
tread  of  man  in  his  native  majesty. 

"  These  elements  divide  and  classify  the  American 
people  into  parties.  Each  of  these  parties  has  its  court 
and  its  sceptre.  The  throne  of  the  one  is  amid  the  rocks 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  the  throne  of  the  other  is 
reared  on  the  sands  of  South  Carolina.  One  of  these 
parties,  the  party  of  slavery,  regards  disunion  as  among 
the  means  of  defense,  and  not  always  the  last  to  be  em 
ployed  ;  the  other  maintains  the  Union  of  the  States 
one  and  inseparable,  now  and  forever,  as  the  highest 
duty  of  the  American  people  to  themselves,  to  posterity, 
to  mankind." 

I  have  no  acrimonious  strictures  to  apply  to  what  has 
just  been  cited.  Perhaps,  though,  the  eminent  person 
age  who  delivered,  with  so  much  apparent  deliberation, 
the  celebrated  Cleveland  speech,  will  not  take  special  of 
fense  if  I  venture  to  suggest  that  what  is  reputed  as  hav 
ing  fallen  from  his  lips  on  this  very  memorable  occasion 

E 


100  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

dier  then  in  the  executive  chair  did  not  hesitate  to  con 
fess  that  he  had  declared  to  the  people  of  the  territories 
in  question  his  "  desire  that  they  should,  if  prepared  to 
comply  with  the  requisitions  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  form  a  plan  of  a  state  Constitution,  and 
submit  the  same  to  Congress,  with  a  prayer  for  admission 
into  the  Union  as  a  state."  It  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  the  territories  thus  encouraged  to  act  would  long  de 
lay  the  putting  on  of  the  wedding  garment,  preparatory  to 
the  political  banquet  to  which  they  had  been  thus  affec 
tionately  invited.  General  Kiley,  then  military  govern 
or  of  California,  under  instructions  from  Washington,  is 
sued  a  proclamation  calling  into  existence  a  convention 
of  the  people  of  California,  the  delegates  to  which  body 
were  in  a  few  weeks  elected,  after  which,  with  all  practi 
cable  dispatch,  they  came  together,  and  proceeded  to 
frame  their  state  Constitution.  It  must  be  confessed 
that  no  one  at  all  acquainted  with  the  general  character 
of  the  soil  in  California,  and  its  extraordinary  and  wide 
ly-diffused  mineral  riches,  would  at  all  censure  the  enter 
prising  and  astute  population  of  that  fair  and  teeming  re 
gion  for  preferring  to  exclude  slave  labor  altogether  from 
their  newly-organized  state,  to  the  introduction  of  myr 
iads  of  the  dusky  sons  of  Africa,  probably  under  the  con 
trol  and  direction  of  selfish  and  mercenary  owners,  into 
the  most  attractive  and  profitable  mining  districts,  thus 
crowding  out  the  enterprising  and  hardy  pioneers  from 
the  old  states,  and  stamping  upon  their  honest  industrial 
labors  the  inevitable  brand  of  discredit. 

It  is  a  curious  and  not  altogether  uninstructive  fact, 
that  of  the  two  United  States  senators  from  the  new  State 


UNITED  STATES  SENATORS.    101 

of  California,  Messrs.  Fremont  and  Gwin,  the  latter  a 
large  slaveholder  at  the  time  in  the  State  of  Mississippi, 
was  the  mover  and  most  prominent  advocate  of  the  slav 
ery  prohibition  clause  in  the  new  Constitution,  while  his 
senatorial  colleague,  destined  to  be  in  a  few  years  the  se 
lected  candidate  of  the  Eepublican  party  for  the  presi 
dency,  was  by  far  the  most  zealous  opponent  of  that 
clause ! ! 

During  the  summer  of  1849,  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Ben- 
ton,  who  is  well  known  to  have  been  originally  an  open 
opposer  of  General  Taylor's  plan  providing  for  the  ad 
mission  of  California  and  New  Mexico  as  states  into  the 
Federal  Union,  was  seen  to  undergo  a  very  sudden  and 
mysterious  change,  and  commenced  making  in  the  State 
of  Missouri  earnest  and  laborious  speeches  in  favor  of 
that  same  policy.  Circumstances  presently  to  be  nar 
rated  had  awakened  in  my  mind  serious  and  painful  dis 
trust  touching  the  movements  and  designs  of  this  re 
markable  personage,  whose  bitter,  but  somewhat  covert 
opposition  to  Mr.  Folk's  administration  (growing  mainly 
out  of  the  fact  that  this  gentleman  had  declined  appoint 
ing  him  lieutenant  general  during  the  Mexican  war  over 
the  head  of  General  Scott,  and  thus  enabling  him  to  mo 
nopolize  the  glory  of  conquering  Mexico),  had  been  for  a 
short  time  sufficiently  manifest  to  those  officially  associ 
ated  with  him.  His  astounding  attempt  to  procure  the 
nullification  of  the  Mexican  treaty,  and  thus  deprive  the 
United  States  of  the  whole  of  that  valuable  domain  re 
cently  acquired  in  California  and  New  Mexico,  by  an  ex 
traordinary  and  unprecedented  proceeding,  the  history  of 
which  has  not  been  heretofore  sufficiently  made  known, 


102  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

induced  me  to  feel  exceedingly  anxious,  and,  as  I  yet 
think,  very  naturally,  to  aid  in  defeating  his  new  scheme 
of  reviving  a  decaying  popularity  by  putting  himself  for 
ward  as  the  most  prominent  advocate  of  the  measure  of 
Californian  admission,  which  it  was  already  quite  easy  to 
perceive  could  not  but  prove  otherwise  than  one  of  great, 
as  well  as  deserved  popularity.  With  such  views  I  wrote 
a  newspaper  article  addressed  to  a  very  eminent  citizen 
of  Virginia  (not  at  all  deserving  to  be  inserted  here,  but 
to  which  the  accidents  of  legislative  contestation  subse 
quently  imparted  a  sort  of  semi-documentary  stamp),  in 
which  I  endeavored,  in  a  very  free  and  formal  manner, 
to  guard  the  public  mind  of  the  country  against  Mr.  Ben- 
ton's  subtle  devices,  after  which  I  addressed  an  earnest 
letter  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  had  been  most  virulently  as 
sailed  by  Mr,  Benton  a  few  weeks  before  in  one  of  his 
public  speeches  in  Missouri,  communicating  to  him  intel 
ligence  of  this  attack  upon  him,  and  urging  him  to  lose 
no  time  in  vindicating  himself  against  what  I  could  not 
but  recognize  as  unprovoked  and  unmerited  aspersions. 
Mr.  Calhoun  very  soon  wrote  the  desired  response,  a 
proof-sheet  copy  of  which  having  been  transmitted  to  me 
by  its  author,  with  a  request  that  I  would  cause  the  same 
to  be  inserted  in  the  Union  newspaper  in  Washington ; 
it  made  its  appearance  accordingly,  without  delay,  in  the 
columns  of  that  journal.  In  my  letter  to  Mr.  Calhoun 
already  referred  to,  I  urged  him  most  warmly  to  be  him 
self  the  introducer  and  chief  champion  at  the  coming  ses 
sion  of  Congress  of  the  measure  of  admission,  giving  him 
my  reason  for  supposing  that  California  wrould  be,  and 
ought  to  be  admitted,  and  suggesting  the  impolicy,  as  well 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN — THOMAS  H.  BENTON.          103 

as  injustice  of  opposing  that  measure,  and  the  earnest  de 
sire  which  I  felt  that  California  should  come  into  the 
Union,  if  possible,  under  Southern  auspices,  with  a  view 
to  guarding  against  the  invigoration  of  the  sectional  op 
position  to  the  South  already,  to  some  extent,  existing, 
and  with  a  view  also  to  the  building  up  for  himself  a 
truly  national  standing  and  popularity,  which  I  thought 
could  not  be  otherwise  than  beneficial  to  the  whole  coun 
try.  Though  Mr.  Calhoun  consented,  as  has  been  stated, 
to  write  in  response  to  Mr.  Benton  as  I  had  requested, 
and  gave  to  the  world  on  that  occasion  the  most  finished 
and  telling  specimen  of  dialectic  power  that  had  ever  em 
anated  from  his  pen,  yet  I  regret  to  say  that  he  declined 
altogether  the  support  of  the  admission  policy,  express 
ing  the  opinion  that  California,  if  allowed  to  enter  the 
Union,  would  eventually  become  an  enemy  to  the  South 
and  her  cherished  interests,  and  would  completely  de 
stroy  the  political  equipoise  then  so  happily  existing  be 
tween  the  states  of  the  North  and  those  of  the  South. 
He  added  that  he  should  have  no  objection  whatever  to 
seeing  Utah  admitted,  since  the  Convention  which  had 
just  held  its  session  in  that  territory  for  the  purpose  of 
providing  a  state  Constitution  had  refused  to  adopt  a 
clause  prohibitory  of  slavery,  and  inasmuch  as  he  had 
satisfactorily  learned  that  there  were  already  in  Utah 
some  five  or  six  hundred  slaves  of  African  derivation. 
Thus  this  negotiation  ended ;  but  I  did  not  desist  still 
from  the  efforts  which  I  had  initiated  to  secure  the  ad 
mission  of  California  in  a  manner  not  to  give  increased 
irritation  to  the  South  ;  and  hoping  still  that  Mr.  Calhoun 
might  be  induced  to  change  his  mind  in  regard  to  this 


104  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

important  matter  before  the  approaching  session  of  Con 
gress  would  commence,  I  drew  up  a  long  and  compre 
hensive  bill  covering  the  whole  territorial  subject,  which, 
after  submitting  the  same  to  a  few  judicious  and  discern 
ing  friends,  and  obtaining  their  approval  of  it,  I  offered 
to  Mr.  Calhoun,  when  he  reached  Washington,  for  his  ex 
amination,  declaring  to  him  that  I  did  not  wish  person 
ally  to  move  in  the  affair,  but  did  still  most  intensely  de 
sire  that  he  should  take  the  lead  on  the  question  of  ad 
mission,  believing,  as  I  did,  that  members  of  Congress 
from  the  South  would  cordially  acquiesce  in  any  policy 
touching  California  and  the  other  new  territories  which 
Mr.  Calhoun  might  judge  wise  and  proper.  He  returned 
the  bill  which  I  had  handed  to  him  in  a  day  or  two, 
promising  still  to  examine  its  provisions  at  some  early 
moment  more  carefully ;  but  finding  him  afterward  reso 
lutely  opposed  to  the  admission  of  California  upon  any 
terms  whatever,  with  great  chagrin  I  relinquished  all 
hope  of  his  complying  with  my  wish  in  regard  to  this  im 
portant  matter,  and  afterward  brought  forward  the  same 
bill  in  the  Senate,  as  the  Congressional  Globe  of  that  pe 
riod  will  attest. 

Before  I  proceed  farther  with  congressional  details  in 
connection  with  this  very  exciting  question,  I  will  now 
narrate  in  a  very  concise  manner  the  particulars  of  the 
extraordinary  conduct  of  Colonel  Benton,  which  has  been 
above  referred  to,  at  the  close  of  Mr.  Folk's  administra 
tion,  and  which  I  am  sure  it  is  high  time  that  all  AMERICA 
should  learn, 

One  morning,  a  gentleman  of  remarkable  astuteness 
and  penetration,  and  who  had  been  formerly  a  member 


ATTEMPT  TO  ABROGATE  THE   MEXICAN  TREATY.   105 

of  Congress,  but  whose  name  it  is  needless  that  I  should 
at  present  disclose,  called  upon  me  at  my  room  in  the 
Capitol,  and  laid  before  me  facts  showing  very  con 
clusively  that  Colonel  Benton  was  then  in  collusion 
with  the  Mexican  minister  resident  in  Washington  for 
the  purpose  of  procuring  the  rescission  of  the  Mexican 
treaty,  as  heretofore  indicated.  I  learned  from  him  that 
these  individuals  were  constantly  interchanging  visits, 
and  that  official  letters  signed  by  the  Mexican  minister 
had  been  received  at  the  Department  of  State,  wherein 
Mr.  Buchanan  was  presiding  at  the  time,  urging,  with  sin 
gular  ingenuity  and  force,  that  the  treaty  with  the  Mexi 
can  republic,  by  the  instrumentality  of  which  California 
and  New  Mexico  had  both  been  obtained,  was  of  no 
earthly  validity  whatever,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
what  was  somewhat  loosely  called  a  protocol — an  official 
paper  subscribed  by  the  ministers  of  the  United  States 
who  had  previously  negotiated  the  treaty — was  so  palpa 
bly  repugnant  to  the  provisions  thereof,  as  necessarily,  if 
enforced,  to  effect  its  abrogation.  I  was  farther  advised 
that  Mr.  Benton  would  very  soon  introduce  this  import 
ant  subject  in  the  Senate  while  that  body  should  be  in 
executive  session,  and  would  offer  a  resolution  for  adop 
tion  correspondent  with  the  views  set  forth  in  the  letters 
of  the  Mexican  minister  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  which 
have  been  already  referred  to.  This  extraordinary  dis 
closure,  fortified  as  it  was  by  numerous  surrounding  cir 
cumstances,  awakened  in  my  bosom  mingled  feelings  of 
indignation  and  of  alarm.  Great  national  interests  seem 
ed  to  be  in  jeopardy.  Mr.  Benton's  peculiar  political  po 
sition  at  the  time  (that  gentleman  not  having  yet  lost  all 

E2 


106  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

his  former  influence  with  the  Democratic  party,  and  hav 
ing  done  much,  of  late,  of  a  nature  to  soften  down  and 
conciliate  his  former  party  adversaries  the  Whigs),  to 
gether  with  the  weight  and  influence  which  he  still  pos 
sessed  in  the  country  at  large,  furnished,  as  I  thought  at 
the  time,  and  as  I  yet  think,  ground  for  serious  anxiety 
and  apprehension.  After  consultation  with  several  con 
siderate  friends,  being  mindful  of  the  noted  test  to  which 
Hamlet  is  described  as  subjecting  his  usurping  uncle  by 
an  extemporized  dramatic  entertainment  fitted  to  devel 
op  aught  of  "  rottenness"  which  might  perchance  be  lurk 
ing  "in  the  state  of  Denmark,"  I  delivered  one  morning 
in  the  Senate  a  short  address  (which  may  be  found  in  the 
Congressional  Globe  of  that  period),  accompanying  the 
same,  as  far  as  I  was  capable,  with  appropriate  glances 
and  gestures,  so  as  at  least  to  shadow  forth  to  any  guilty 
conscience  which  might  chance  to  be  in  presence  the  pain 
ful  suspicions  which  I  had  conceived,  and  "probe  it"  also, 
if  possible,  "  to  the  very  quick."  This  address  concluded 
with  the  following  well-known  couplet  from  Pope : 

"Who  would  not  smile,  if  such  a  man  there  be? 
Who  would  not  blush,  if  Atticus  were  he?" 

Whether  there  was  real  "blenching"  or  not  in  the  dis 
trusted  quarter,  I  shall  leave  it  to  those  present  on  the 
occasion  specified  to  decide.  I  was,  I  confess,  exceeding 
ly  desirous  that  the  aged  senator  from  Missouri  should 
desist  from  the  execution  of  his  scheme  of  territorial 
spoliation,  if  he  could  be  induced  to  do  so  either  by  his 
own  fears  of  personal  disgrace  or  by  the  persuasions  of 
friends ;  and  I  awaited  the  result  of  events  with  patience, 


MR.  BENTON — MR.  BUCHANAN.  107 

though  certainly  not  without  carrying  forward  diligently 
the  scrutiny  which  I  had  already  commenced.  In  a  day 
or  two  thereafter  Mr.  Polk  ceased  to  be  president,  and 
General  Taylor  became  domiciliated  at  the  White  House. 
Having  unlimited  confidence  in  the  love  of  country 
which  glowed  in  the  pure  bosom  of  this  time-worn  chief 
tain,  and  entertaining  a  high  personal  esteem  for  the 
members  of  his  cabinet,  I  resolved  to  make  an  early  ap 
peal  to  those  then  in  power  to  aid,  with  whatever  of  influ 
ence  they  possessed,  in  defeating  any  measure  which  Mr. 
Benton  might  introduce  in  the  Senate  looking  to  the  do 
ing  away  of  the  Mexican  treaty.  Before  this  intention 
could  be  fully  executed,  two  Democratic  senators  from 
the  West,  whose  names,  were  I  to  mention  them,  would 
not  fail  to  command  the  most  profound  homage,  came  to 
me  at  the  Capitol,  directly  from  the  presence  of  Mr.  Bu 
chanan,  bearing  to  me  a  message  from  that  gentleman 
requesting  that  I  should  lose  no  time  in  calling  upon 
him,  for  the  purpose  of  being  made  acquainted  by  him 
with  all  the  particulars  connected  with  the  correspond 
ence  which  had  several  weeks  before  taken  place  between 
this  personage  as  Secretary  of  State  and  the  Mexican 
minister.  It  should  be  here  observed  that  Mr.  Buchanan 
yet  occupied  the  State  Department,  having  been  request1 
ed  by  General  Taylor  to  continue  therein  until  it  might 
become  convenient  to  Mr.  Clayton,  then  otherwise  much 
occupied,  to  relieve  him.  I  will  here  mention  an  addi 
tional  fact,  which  I  could  not  consider  altogether  imma 
terial.  The  two  senators  who  had  thus  summoned  me  to 
the  presence  of  Mr.  Buchanan  had  been,  up  to  that  time, 
the  ardent  admirers  of  Mr.  Benton,  and  had  frankly  de- 


108  SCYLLA   AND   CHARYBDIS, 

clared,  in  this  very  interview,  that  they  had  before  that 
time  been  often  disposed  to  find  fault  with  what  they  had 
deemed  my  over-censorious  course  toward  Mr.  Benton. 
The  interview  with  Mr.  Buchanan  did  accordingly  take 
place,  but  barely  in  time  to  prevent  mischievous  conse 
quences  in  the  Senate.  The  adroit  and  skillful  engineer 
had  already  commenced  his  work  in  that  body  with  all 
the  artistic  skill  which  his  great  Parliamentary  experi 
ence  could  put  in  use,  and  it  had  now  become  an  intense 
ly  interesting  question  whether  or  not  this  same  wily  en 
gineer  could  be  "  hoist  on  his  own  petard"  Mr.  Buchanan 
informed  me  that  he  felt^well  satisfied  that  General  Tay 
lor  and  his  cabinet  fully  approved  the  position  which  he 
had  assumed  in  the  correspondence  already  referred  to  in 
regard  to  the  "  protocol ;"  that  they  would  do  all  in  their 
power  (as  he  thought)  to  uphold  the  treaty,  and  to  pre 
serve  the  national  domain  against  the  dangers  to  which 
it  stood  exposed  from  the  course  of  Mr.  Benton ;  but 
suggested,  in  addition,  that  he  and  I  should  visit  the 
White  House  in  the  morning  anterior  to  the  meeting  of 
the  Senate  (then  in  special  session),  and  procure,  if  we 
could,  a  formal  official  declaration  from  the  President  .or 
his  expected  premier,  Mr.  Clayton,  which,  when  exhibited 
to  the  Whig  members  of  the  Senate,  would  advise  them 
fully  as  to  the  views  and  wishes  of  the  existing  adminis 
tration.  Early  on  the  following  morning,  before  yet  the 
hour  of  ten  o'clock  had  arrived,  Mr.  Buchanan  and  my 
self  were  on  our  way  to  the  presidential  mansion.  Just 
as  the  carriage  which  was  conveying  us  thither  drove  op 
posite  the  Department  of  State,  Colonel  James  Watson 
Webb,  formerly  editor  of  the  New  York  Courier  and 


JOHN  M.  CLAYTON — JAMES  WATSON  WEBB.        109 

Enquirer,  made  his  appearance,  told  ns  lie  knew  what 
was  taking  us  to  the  presence  of  General  Taylor,  and  re 
quested  to  be  allowed  to  accompany  us  upon  our  patriotic 
mission.  To  this  proposition  we  cheerfully  acceded,  and 
our  carriage  took  us  without  delay  to  the  place  of  desti 
nation.  When  we  reached  the  White  House  we  learned 
that  the  cabinet  was  then  in  session.  We  sent  our  names 
to  Mr.  Clayton,  and  asked  for  an  immediate  interview, 
which  having  been  accorded  to  us,  we  proceeded  to  lay 
the  matter  so  near  our  hearts  before  this  courteous  and 
accomplished  personage.  His  conduct  on  the  occasion 
was  most  proper  and  becoming.  He  told  us  that  the 
subject  of  the  treaty  and  the  protocol  had  been  before  the 
'President  and  his  cabinet ;  that  they  could  see  no  repug 
nance  whatever  between  the  said  treaty  and  the  protocol. 
He  said  he  had  thoroughly  examined  the  official  corre 
spondence  which  had  taken  place,  and  that  he  was  pre 
pared  to  endorse  most  fully  every  line  and  sentence  in 
Mr.  Buchanan's  letters  to  the  Mexican  minister.  After 
this  declaration  had  been  made,  I  requested  Mr.  Clayton 
to  embody,  or  cause  to  be  embodied  in  a  short  resolution, 
the  views  which  he  entertained  on  this  important  subject, 
and  accordingly  he  dictated  such  a  resolution,  which  one 
of  our  company  took  down  in  pencil-marks  from  his  lips. 
This  resolution  I  took  back  to  the  Senate,  and  exhibited 
it  to  several  Whig  members  of  that  body,  who  seemed 
very  much  gratified  therewith ;  but,  to  make  assurance 
"double  sure"  the  then  attorney  general,  the  Hon.  Eev- 
erdy  Johnson,  was  dispatched  by  General  Taylor  to  the 
Senate,  and,  long  before  the  discussion  of  the  morning 
was  commenced,  this  great  question  of  state  was  virtualy 


110  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

settled.  Mr.  Webster  came  to  me,  I  well  remember,  in 
his  most  solemn  and  formal  manner,  and  declared,  in 
more  zealous  and  pointed  language  than  he  was  at  all 
accustomed  to  use  on  ordinary  occasions,  his  disgust  and 
indignation  at  what  he  understood  Mr.  Benton  was  at 
tempting  to  effect,  and  assured  me  that  there  was  no 
Whig  member  of  the  Senate  who  would  not  vote  with 
the  Democratic  members  of  that  body  in  defense  of  our 
territorial  interests  under  the  treaty.  Not  knowing 
whether  yet  the  injunction  of  secrecy  in  relation  to  the 
proceedings  then  pending  has  been  removed,  I  shall  only 
say  now  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  nature  of  the 
proposition  then  pending  in  the  Senate,  there  were  only 
two  speeches  made  in  that  body  —  one  in  favor  of  and 
one  in  opposition  to  this  proposition,  and  that  the  Senate 
then  voted  it  down  at  once,  with  only  one  dissentient  vote. 
Whose  vote  that  was  I  leave  to  be  conjectured. 

It  will  surprise  no  one  now,  I  presume,  to  learn  that  I 
considered  myself  justified  by  such  facts  as  I  have  men 
tioned,  and  which  various  of  the  senators  then  upon  the 
stage  of  action,  and  who  yet  survive,  are  prepared  to  at 
test,  in  doing  what  I  could  legitimately  and  fairly  do  to 
weaken  Mr.  Benton's  influence  in  the  country,  and  to  cir 
cumscribe  his  capacity  for  public  mischief.  Hence  my 
assailment  of  him  in  the  newspapers  in  the  summer  of 
1849,  as  already  stated,  and  my  anxiety  to  prevent  his 
obtaining  the  lead  on  the  California  question  of  admis 
sion.  But  my  opposition  to  Mr.  Benton  did  by  no  means 
stop  here.  I  determined  to  deal  him  an  additional  blow, 
which,  if  the  Democratic  members  of  the  Senate  should 
prove  as  mindful  of  the  honor  of  the  country,  as  well  as 


OFFICIAL   DISGRACE   OF   COLONEL   BENTON.        Ill 

of  their  own  individual  dignity,  as  I  hoped,  could  not 
but  be  fatal  to  him.  On  the  first  day  of  the  approaching 
session  of  Congress  I  determined  to  enter  the  Democratic 
senatorial  caucus,  which  was  uniformly  convoked  on 
that  day,  and  move  that  Mr.  Benton,  upon  charges  which 
I  was  prepared  to  array  against  him,  should  be  discon 
tinued  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs, 
well  knowing  that  if  this  movement  should  be  successful 
in  caucus,  the  Democratic  party  having  a  decided  ma 
jority  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Benton  would  be  of  necessity 
ousted  from  his  position  as  the  head  of  that  important 
committee.  In  point  of  fact,  I  afterward  pursued  this 
very  course.  I  moved  in  caucus  that  William  K.  King, 
of  Alabama,  should  be  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  For 
eign  Affairs  instead  of  Thomas  H.  Benton,  which  motion, 
after  two  mornings  spent  in  earnest  controversy,  was  car 
ried  by  a  majority  of  a  single  vote ;  soon  after  which  Mr. 
Benton  resigned  his  place  as  a  member  of  said  commit 
tee.  Whether  these  proceedings  had  any  influence  in 
Missouri  afterward  in  securing  Mr.  Benton's  defeat  for 
senatorial  re-election  from  that  state,  which  occurred  dur 
ing  the  subsequent  winter,  I  have  never  specially  in 
quired,  and  it  is  not  at  all  important  now  that  this  ques 
tion  should  be  settled.  It  is  a  respected  maxim  that  the 
dead  should  not  le  spoken  of  but  with  commendation.  I  am 
not  at  all  disposed  to  violate  this  maxim  upon  the  pres 
ent  occasion ;  but,  as  Mr.  Benton  was  accustomed  to  ob 
serve  when  living,  "The  truth  of  history  must  lie  vindica 
ted:1 

I  shall  decline  saying  any  thing  as  to  the  motives  "by 
which  he  was  actuated  in  this  strange  affair  of  the  proto 
col,  nor  shall  I  now  descant  upon  the  moral  qualities, 


112  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

whether  good  or  bad,  which  entered  into  his  character, 
either  as  a  public  man  or  as  a  private  citizen.  He  was 
certainly  a  man  of  much  natural  strength  of  intellect, 
and  of  a  most  capacious  and  retentive  memory.  He  pos 
sessed  much  knowledge  of  various  kinds,  and  as  a  writer 
of  pure  and  nervous  English  he  had  few  equals.  He  was 
exceedingly  deficient  in  extemporaneous  oratorical  pow 
er,  had  a  bad  voice,  a  forbidding,  dogmatical,  and  un- 
conciliatory  manner,  showed  but  little  respect  for  the 
feelings  of  others  whom  he  met  in  debate,  and,  as  a  pol 
itician,  was  not  over-scrupulous  as  to  the  means  which  he 
employed  for  the  attainment  of  his  ends.  He  never  spoke 
in  the  Senate  except  upon  the  most  deliberate  prepara 
tion,  and  then  always  from  copious  notes,  and  his  princi 
pal  speeches  were  generally  written  out  in  full  before  their 
delivery.  While  General  Jackson  was  in  the  presiden 
tial  office,  and  Mr.  Blair  was  editing  the  Globe,  he  was 
eminently  successful  as  a  party  leader  in  the  Senate. 
When  another  Pharaoh  arose  "who  did  not  know  Jo 
seph,"  and  when  the  Globe  was  fated  to  give  way  to  the 
Union,  under  the  direction  of  the  venerable  Thomas 
Eitchie,  the  renowned  champion  of  the  celebrated  ex 
punging  resolution  seemed  to  have  forever  lost  his  polit 
ical  equipoise,  and  his  conduct  as  a  senator  was  thence 
forth  such  as  not  only  to  grieve  his  remaining  friends 
most  sorely,  but  seriously  to  impair  his  legislative  useful 
ness,  as  well  as  to  enfeeble  his  claims  to  influence  the 
opinions  and  conduct  of  such  as  had  looked  up  to  him 
at  one  time  with  sentiments  of  profound  esteem  and  ad 
miration.  In  view  of  these  sad  and  painful  scenes,  we 
may  well  exclaim  with  Mr.  Burke,  "What  shadows  we 
are,  and  lohat  shadows  we  pursue  /" 


GENERAL  TAYLOR'S  NON- ACTION  POLICY.       113 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Review  of  General  Taylor's  non-action  Policy. — Painful  and  exciting 
Rumors  in  regard  to  the  Instrumentalities  employed  by  him  to  carry 
that  Policy  into  Operation. — Intense  Alarm  awakened  among  Patri 
ots  as  to  the  Fate  of  the  Country.  —  Mr.  Clay  leaves  his  own  Home, 
and  comes  to  Washington  upon  a  Mission  of  Pacification. — He  is  met 
upon  his  arrival  there  with  general  Cordiality  and  Respect. — Mr.  Ben- 
ton  attempts  to  inveigle  him  into  a  false  Position  in  regard  to  the  Meas 
ure  of  admitting  California,  and  is  for  a  time  successful. — Mr.  Clay's 
Programme  of  Adjustment,  and  the  "five  bleeding  Wounds." — This 
Gentleman  severs  his  Alliance  with  Mr.  Benton,  and  becomes  the  Cham 
pion  of  the  famous  Omnibus  Scheme. — His  magnanimous  waver  of  cer 
tain  abstract  Opinions  with  a  View  to  general  Conciliation. — First  meet 
ing  of  the  Nashville  Convention. — Great  Excitement  consequent  upon 
its  Proceedings. — Anti-slavery  Movements  about  the  same  Period,  and 
Mr.  Seward's  anti-compromise  Speech. — Resolution  introduced  by  the 
Author,  several  weeks  before,  for  the  raising  of  the  famous  Committee 
of  Thirteen,  finally  pushed  to  a  Vote  at  the  Instance  of  Mr.  Cass. — Emi 
nently  patriotic  Conduct  of  Mr.  Webster  on  this  Occasion. — Resolution 
finally  carried. — Mr.  Clay  appointed  Chairman  thereof,  who  speedily 
brings  in  his  Report,  upon  which  an  animated  Discussion  occurs. 

THE  scheme  of  policy  which,  in  the  summer  of  1849, 
it  was  generally  known  that  the  administration  of  Gen 
eral  Taylor  had  deliberately  adopted,  by  which  it  was  ex 
pected  that  by  an  adroit  and  subtle  process,  for  which 
there  had  been  then  no  example,  slavery  would  be  at 
once  and  forever  shut  out  from  the  territories  recently 
acquired  (it  being  "understood,"  as  is  now  frankly  con 
fessed,  "  that  being  thus  organized,  in  the  absence  of  both 
slaveholders  and  slaves,  they  would  almost  necessarily  be- 


114  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

come  free  states"),  leaves  no  ground  for  surprise  that,  in 
the  condition  of  the  popular  mind  at  that  period  exist 
ing  throughout  the  South,  intense  excitement  and  alarm 
should  have  every  where  prevailed.  It  was  discovered 
that,  within  a  month  or  two,  in  some  mysterious  manner, 
one  of  the  great  parties  to  the  "irrepressible  conflict" 
which  had  been  so  oracularly  announced,  had  already 
put  on  the  armor  of  war  and  regularly  taken  the  field ; 
that  all  the  appliances  which  government  could  muster 
were  ready  to  be  used,  yea,  were  "being  at  that  moment  used 
to  render  that  party  ultimately  triumphant ;  and  that  the 
boasted  equiponderance  of  power  upon  which  the  South 
had  so  long  confidently  relied  was  about  to  disappear  for 
ever.  Popular  meetings  were  immediately  called  in  ev 
ery  Southern  state,  and  indeed  almost  in  every  neighbor 
hood  of  each  state,  for  the  purpose  of  remonstrating  re 
spectfully  but  earnestly  against  the  menaced  infraction 
of  slaveholding  rights.  Inflammatory  resolutions  were 
adopted  at  all  these  meetings,  and  from  some  of  them 
strong  and  eloquent  addresses  went  forth,  calculated  to 
produce  alarm,  distrust,  and  alienation  in  bosoms  where 
quiet,  and  confidence,  arid  fraternal  affection  had  been 
formerly  wont  to  dwell.  Grave  and  thoughtful  states 
men  were  grieved  and  astonished  at  the  prospect  of  com 
ing  evils;  and  fierce  sectional  demagogues,  the  pest  of 
all  extended  republics,  were  every  where  engaged  in  fan 
ning  the  embers  of  dissatisfaction ;  ambitiously  hoping, 
doubtless,  that  in  the  whirlwind  which  seemed  to  be  now 
coming  on,  even  such  miscreants  as  themselves  might 
perchance  be  tossed  into  positions  of  airy  and  lofty  eleva 
tion.  The  whole  republic  was  convulsed  as  by  a  moral 


HENRY   CLAY,  THE   POLITICAL   NEPTUNE.  115 

earthquake,  and  desponding  patriots  began  to  look  for 
ward  to  those  scenes  of  civil  ruin  against  which  "Wash 
ington  in  his  Farewell  Address  had  so  impressively  warn 
ed  his  countrymen.  In  looking  back  now  to  that  fearful 
period  in  American  annals,  the  votary  of  classic  lore  is 
almost  irresistibly  reminded  of  that  almost  unequaled 
picture  in  the  ^Eneid  in  which  the  bard  of  Mantua  de 
scribes  with  so  much  vivacity  and  force  the  fierce  and 
tumultuous  waves  of  the  tempest-raised  ocean.  For  our 
consolation,  amid  the  perils  which  his  imagination  con 
jures  into  existence,  the  great  Latin  poet  presently  brings 
forward  Neptune,  with  his  all-potent  trident,  to  compose 
the  vexed  waves  of  his  watery  domain — likening  the  sea- 
god,  in  his  auspicious  coming,  to  "some  man  of  earth  re 
vered  for  his  purity  and  worth,"  who,  suddenly  present 
ing  himself  to  the  view  of  the  seditious  multitude  stirred 
up  to  violent  commotion,  "by  persuasive  eloquence  rules 
their  passions  and  calms  their  breasts."  So  was  it  pre 
cisely  in  1850,  when  the  venerable  Henry  Clay,  of  Ken 
tucky,  left  his  own  loved  and  peaceful  home  upon  a  sa 
cred  mission  of  peace,  and  visited  the  Capitol  of  the  re 
public,  where  he  beheld,  on  his  arrival,  all  the  elements 
of  discord  and  unfriendly  feeling  fiercely  at  work.  He 
at  once  addressed  himself  to  the  mighty  task  before  him, 
and  happily,  in  a  few  months,  by  the  employment  of  mild 
and  pacific  expedients,  saved  his  country  from,  that  threat 
ened  "  conflict"  which,  most  fortunately  for  that  same 
country,  this  admired  statesman  did  not  by  any  means 
regard  as  of  a  hopelessly  "irrepressible"  character. 

From  the  day  of  Mr.  Clay's  arrival  in  Washington,  it 
was  evident  that  all  in  Congress  who  were  the  sincere 


116  SCYLLA  AND   CIIARYBDIS. 

and  enlightened  friends  of  the  Union  recognized  him  as 
their  leader.  All  seemed  to  accord  to  him  the  purest  and 
most  patriotic  motives ;  though  it  is  true  that  there  were 
selfish  and  designing  factionists  to  be  found  here  and 
there,  who,  perceiving  that  he  was  in  the  way  of  their 
own  cherished  schemes,  affected  to  apprehend  mischief 
to  the  public  weal  from  his  influence.  Mr.  Webster 
met  him  in  the  most  cordial  and  deferential  manner,  as 
was  due  to  his  superior  years ;  and  I  saw  Mr.  Calhoun, 
after  consulting  a  friend  or  two  about  him  touching  the 
propriety  of  his  making  the  first  approach  to  one  from 
whom,  a  few  years  earlier,  he  had  parted  with  some  un- 
kindness,  advance  with  manly  stride  toward  the  seat  of 
the  great  statesman  of  the  West  and  offer  to  him  his  most 
affectionate  salutations.  I  had  the  honor  of  being  pre 
sented  to  Mr.  Clay,  in  his  own  parlor  at  the  National  Ho 
tel,  by  my  venerated  friend  from  Michigan,  General  Cass. 
The  meeting  between  these  two  illustrious  citizens  was 
marked  with  much  affection  and  respect  on  both  sides, 
and  it  would  seem  that  both  of  them  even  then  antici 
pated  the  new  ties  of  enduring  affection  which  were  soon 
to  spring  up  between  them.  That  the  relations  between 
Mr.  Clay  and  General  Cass  did  in  a  few  weeks  grow  most 
kind  and  confidential  is  known  already  to  many.  It  is 
perhaps  not  so  well  known  to  all,  though,  or  is  at  least 
perhaps  not  now  so  vividly  remembered  by  them,  that 
each  of  these  personages  displayed,  in  the  progress  of  a 
few  months,  a  most  magnanimous  and  self-sacrificing  tem 
per  toward  the  other.  T  recollect  well  that  when,  on  one 
occasion,  the  warm  political  friends  of  General  Cass,  an 
ticipating  that  much  popularity  would  accrue  to  the  indi- 


CLAY   AND  CASS — THEIR  MAGNANIMITY.          117 

vidual  who  should  be  most  conspicuous  in  effecting  a  fair 
and  honest  settlement  of  existing  sectional  difficulties, 
urged  this  gentleman  to  allow  his  name  to  be  used  in 
connection  with  the  position  of  chairman  of  the  celebrated 
Committee  of  Thirteen,  suggesting  that,  should  Mr.  Clay 
be  allowed  to  become  chairman  of  that  committee,  he 
would,  in  all  probability,  be  elevated  to  the  presidency  at 
the  next  election,  General  Cass  at  once  declared,  "  Well, 
be  it  so ;  Mr.  Clay  is  entitled  on  every  ground  to  be  the 
chairman  of  the  committee;  he  alone  can  rescue  the 
country  from  its  present  dangers;  and  if  he  shall  suc 
ceed  in  doing  it,  I  shall  vote  for  him  for  President  with 
the  greatest  pleasure  myself."  In  the  winter  of  1851,  '2, 
I  heard  Mr.  Clay  repeatedly  declare  that,  while  Mr.  Fill- 
more  was  his  first  choice  for  president,  in  the  event  of 
this  latter  gentleman's  failing  to  obtain  the  nomination 
of  his  party,  he  should  then  prefer  General  Cass  for  the 
presidency  to  any  man  in  the  republic.  These  rare  ex 
amples  of  disinterestedness  and  elevated  patriotism  are 
worthy  to  be  borne  eternally  in  the  minds  of  their  coun 
trymen  of  the  present  and  of  all  future  generations. 

Mr.  Clay  had  hardly  reached  Washington  City  before 
Mr.  Benton,  not  recognizing,  as  did  all  others,  the  pecul 
iar  sacredness  of  his  mission  to  the  capital,  made  early 
and  prodigious  efforts  to  appropriate  his  well-earned  in 
fluence  and  popularity  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  own 
favorite  designs.  With  this  view  he  very  soon  flattering 
ly  informed  him  that  he  and  his  son-in-law.  Colonel  Fre 
mont,  had  determined  to  rely  mainly  upon  his  efforts  for 
securing  the  early  admission  of  the  newly -formed  State 
'  of  California,  and  requested  him,  indeed,  to  initiate  the 


116  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

and  enlightened  friends  of  the  Union  recognized  him  as 
their  leader.  All  seemed  to  accord  to  him  the  purest  and 
most  patriotic  motives ;  though  it  is  true  that  there  were 
selfish  and  designing  factionists  to  be  found  here  and 
there,  who,  perceiving  that  he  was  in  the  way  of  their 
own  cherished  schemes,  affected  to  apprehend  mischief 
to  the  public  weal  from  his  influence.  Mr.  Webster 
met  him  in  the  most  cordial  and  deferential  manner,  as 
was  due  to  his  superior  years ;  and  I  saw  Mr.  Calhoun, 
after  consulting  a  friend  or  two  about  him  touching  the 
propriety  of  his  making  the  first  approach  to  one  from 
whom,  a  few  years  earlier,  he  had  parted  with  some  un- 
kindness,  advance  with  manly  stride  toward  the  seat  of 
the  great  statesman  of  the  West  and  offer  to  him  his  most 
affectionate  salutations.  I  had  the  honor  of  being  pre 
sented  to  Mr.  Clay,  in  his  own  parlor  at  the  National  Ho 
tel,  by  my  venerated  friend  from  Michigan,  General  Cass. 
The  meeting  between  these  two  illustrious  citizens  was 
marked  with  much  affection  and  respect  on  both  sides, 
and  it  would  seem  that  both  of  them  even  then  antici 
pated  the  new  ties  of  enduring  affection  which  were  soon 
to  spring  up  between  them.  That  the  relations  between 
Mr.  Clay  and  General  Cass  did  in  a  few  weeks  grow  most 
kind  and  confidential  is  known  already  to  many.  It  is 
perhaps  not  so  well  known  to  all,  though,  or  is  at  least 
perhaps  not  now  so  vividly  remembered  by  them,  that 
each  of  these  personages  displayed,  in  the  progress  of  a 
few  months,  a  most  magnanimous  and  self-sacrificing  tem 
per  toward  the  other.  T  recollect  well  that  when,  on  one 
occasion,  the  warm  political  friends  of  General  Cass,  an 
ticipating  that  much  popularity  would  accrue  to  the  indi- 


CLAY   AND   CASS — THEIR  MAGNANIMITY.  117 

vidual  who  should  be  most  conspicuous  in  effecting  a  fair 
and  honest  settlement  of  existing  sectional  difficulties, 
urged  this  gentleman  to  allow  his  name  to  be  used  in 
connection  with  the  position  of  chairman  of  the  celebrated 
Committee  of  Thirteen,  suggesting  that,  should  Mr.  Clay 
be  allowed  to  become  chairman  of  that  committee,  he 
would,  in  all  probability,  be  elevated  to  the  presidency  at 
the  next  election,  General  Cass  at  once  declared,  "  Well, 
be  it  so ;  Mr.  Clay  is  entitled  on  every  ground  to  be  the 
chairman  of  the  committee ;  he  alone  can  rescue  the 
country  from  its  present  dangers;  and  if  he  shall  suc 
ceed  in  doing  it,  I  shall  vote  for  him  for  President  with 
the  greatest  pleasure  myself."  In  the  winter  of  1851,  '2, 
I  heard  Mr.  Clay  repeatedly  declare  that,  while  Mr.  Fill- 
more  was  his  first  choice  for  president,  in  the  event  of 
this  latter  gentleman's  failing  to  obtain  the  nomination 
of  his  party,  he  should  then  prefer  General  Cass  for  the 
presidency  to  any  man  in  the  republic.  These  rare  ex 
amples  of  disinterestedness  and  elevated  patriotism  are 
worthy  to  be  borne  eternally  in  the  minds  of  their  coun 
trymen  of  the  present  and  of  all  future  generations. 

Mr.  Clay  had  hardly  reached  Washington  City  before 
Mr.  Benton,  not  recognizing,  as  did  all  others,  the  pecul 
iar  sacredness  of  his  mission  to  the  capital,  made  early 
and  prodigious  efforts  to  appropriate  his  well-earned  in 
fluence  and  popularity  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  own 
favorite  designs.  With  this  view  he  very  soon  flattering 
ly  informed  him  that  he  and  his  son-in-law,  Colonel  Fre 
mont,  had  determined  to  rely  mainly  upon  his  efforts  for 
securing  the  early  admission  of  the  newly -formed  State 
•of  California,  and  requested  him,  indeed,  to  initiate  the 


118  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

measure.  Mr.  Clay,  as  lie  afterward  frankly  acknowl 
edged,  had  not  duly  examined  all  the  surrounding  cir 
cumstances,  nor  become  convinced  yet,  as  he  subsequent 
ly  was,  that  the  attempt  to  force  hastily  and  prematurely 
the  act  of  admission  as  a  separate  measure,  while  the  oth 
er  outstanding  questions  growing  out  of  slavery  remained 
unadjusted,  might  add  seriously  to  the  existing  troubles 
of  the  country,  and  be  productive  of  many  injurious  con 
sequences  of  a  permanent  character.  He  agreed,  there 
fore,  to  introduce  the  bill  as  requested,  and  at  an  early 
day ;  which  he  in  fact  afterward  did,  and  in  a  most  grace 
ful  and  impressive  manner. 

It  was  evident  to  many  members  of  both  Houses  of 
Congress,  in  the  condition  of  things  then  existing,  that, 
for  the  reasons  already  stated,  any  attempt  to  bring 
California  in  as  a  separate  measure  would  be  productive 
of  much  mischievous  wrangling  and  contention  in  these 
bodies,  and  might,  in  addition,  produce  far  more  seri 
ous  consequences  elsewhere.  Mr.  Clay,  in  a  very  elo 
quent  speech  delivered  by  him  in  the  Senate,  had  refer 
red  to  five  bleeding  wounds  then  existing  in  the  body  pol 
itic,  and  had  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  stanching  all 
of  them  as  soon  as  possible.  He  was  known,  when  he 
used  this  figurative  language,  which  has  at  different  times 
been  the  subject  of  so  much  pointless  criticism,  to  have 
had  in  view  the  five  following  points :  1st,  the  admission 
of  California ;  2d,  the  settlement  of  the  Texan  boundary; 
3d,  an  adequate  amendment  of  the  existing  Fugitive  Slave 
Law;  4th,  the  doing  away  with  the  traffic  in  slaves  in  the 
District  of  Columbia ;  5th,  the  establishment  of  a  terri 
torial  government  for  all  the  domain  acquired  from  Mex- 


THE   OMNIBUS   BILL.  119 

ico  outside  of  the  boundaries  to  be  assigned  to  California. 
He  was  sincerely  anxious  to  settle  all  these  questions,  and 
was  fully  resolved  to  leave  none  of  them  open,  if  he  could 
avoid  it,  to  prove  thereafter  a  source  of  needless  irritation. 
His  desire  was  to  adjust  all  the  points  of  dispute  existing 
between  the  two  sections  upon  equitable  and  satisfactory 
principles,  and  leave  no  heart-burning  or  discontent  re 
maining  in  any  quarter.  He  did  not  perceive  at  first 
that,  in  order  to  effect  a  settlement  so  comprehensive  as 
he  desired,  it  would  be  indispensable  to  conjoin  the  vari 
ous  measures,  so  as  to  get  through  Congress  several  en 
actments  which  were  in  themselves  not  a  little  odious  to 
a  portion  of  the  states  and  people  of  the  Union,  by  force 
of  the  overwhelming  popularity  in  certain  other  states,  of 
the  measure  of  Californian  admission ;  and  that  there  was 
great  danger,  if  California  should  be  admitted,  as  Mr.  Ben- 
ton  and  others  were  so  unwisely  and  illiberally  urging,  as 
a  separate  measure,  and  in  advance  of  all  the  other  enact 
ments  the  adoption  of  which  he  aimed  to  procure,  that  the 
other  enactments  referred  to,  or  at  least  some  of  the  most 
essential  of  them,  might  thereafter  never  pass  at  all.  Be 
sides,  he  had  been  authentically  informed  that  the  state  of 
f>arty  feeling  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  was  daily 
getting  more  and  more  excited  and  acrimonious,  and  that 
some  scenes  had  already  occurred  in  that  body  which  more 
or  less  portended  even  the  spilling  of  blood  in  unfrater- 
nal  strife  —  an  occurrence  which  he  could  not  but  feel 
might  be  made  to  result  in  extended  civil  war.  Under 
these  circumstances,  Mr.  Clay  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
a  single  measure  of  compromise  and  adjustment,  embracing 
all  the  contested  points,  would  be  the  most  wise  and  sal- 


120  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

utary  expedient  which  could  be  devised ;  and  he  was 
farther  persuaded  by  certain  friends  of  either  House  of 
Congress  in  whose  good  sense  and  disinterested  patriot 
ism  he  reposed  the  utmost  confidence  that  no  good  could 
possibly  arise,  but,  on  the  contrary,  in  all  probability, 
much  of  evil,  from  pertinaciously  insisting  that  Congress 
should  come  to  a  distinct  vote  upon  the  two  abstract  ques 
tions  touching  the  constitutional  authority  of  the  Federal 
government  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  and  to  exclude  it  from  the  territories.  Never  did 
Mr.  Clay  evince  more  true  statesmanship,  more  elevated 
patriotism,  and  a  nobler  moral  courage,  than  he  did  in 
consenting  to  change  his  attitude  in  the  manner  men 
tioned,  in  view  of  all  the  imperious  considerations  which 
have  been  specified ;  and  yet  this,  the  noblest  act  perhaps 
of  his  long  public  life,  has  been  the  subject  of  most  vehe 
ment  and  acrimonious  reproach  in  numerous  quarters, 
and  .was,  in  a  short  time  also,  to  bring  him  once  more 
into  fierce  collision  with  his  ancient  antagonist,  Mr.  Ben- 
ton,  with  whom  he  had  been  at  variance  for  some  twenty 
years  or  more,  until  they  had  been  persuaded,  about  two 
years  antecedent,  by  mutual  friends,  to  resume  their  ear 
ly  relations  of  kind  social  intercourse. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Clay  consented  to  take  this  course,  I 
lost  no  time  in  bringing  forward  a  resolution  in  the  Sen 
ate  which  proposed  to  raise  a  committee  of  thirteen,  to 
which  should  be  referred  the  several  sets  of  resolutions 
embracing  the  subject  of  slavery  then  pending  in  the 
Senate;  and  I  continued  to  urge,  morning  after  morning, 
the  adoption  of  the  resolution  for  the  formation  of  said 
committee  for  several  weeks  before  success  was  eventual 
ly  achieved. 


NASHVILLE  CONVENTION.  121 

Meanwhile  several  movements  were  in  progress  else 
where,  of  which  I  deem  it  expedient  now  to  take  a  pass 
ing  notice. 

The  excitement  in  the  South  had  culminated  in  the  as 
semblage  of  the  celebrated  Nashville  Convention,  where 
much  was  said  and  done  which  seemed  indicative  of 
coming  troubles.  Another  session  of  the  same  body  was 
expected  soon  to  occur,  which  might  or  might  not,  ac 
cording  to  the  course  of  events,  yet  painfully  uncertain, 
adopt  extreme  measures  for  the  preservation  of  cherished 
Southern  rights,  supposed  by  not  a  few  to  be  in  danger 
of  speedy  immolation.  In  another  and  opposite  quarter 
the  Abolition  caldron  was  beginning  most  ominously  to 
seethe  and  bubble,  emitting  copious  effusions  of  cloudy 
vapor,  and  was  in  fact  almost  ready  to  overboil  from  the 
intense  heat  which  the  breath  of  fierce  agitators,  with  ca 
pacious,  bellows-like  lungs,  was  fast  kindling  beneath  it. 
The  doors  of  Faneuil  Hall  had  not  yet  refused  to  turn 
upon  their  "  golden  hinges"  to  let  into  that  famed  sanc 
tuary  of  fervent  and  sublime  patriotism  in  the  olden  time, 
the  noblest,  the  wisest,  and  most  renowned  of  all  the  glo 
rious  defenders  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  But 
the  praise  of  Daniel  Webster  was  no  longer  universally 
upon  the  lips  of  his  once  almost  idolizing  fellow -citi 
zens  of  Boston,  and  his  great  heart  was  almost  ready  to 
break  under  the  mingled  influence  of  the  fears  which  he 
felt  for  his  country's  safety,  and  the  profound  chagrin  and 
anguish  which  he  could  not  but  experience  when  every 
mail  from  the  East  brought  to  him  fresh  intelligence  of 
the  ingratitude  of  some  whom  he  had  so  long  faithfully 
served,  and  the  profound  delusion  of  not  a  few  from 

F 


122  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

whose  former  steadiness  of  temper  and  calm  equipoise  of 
intellect  he  had  confidently  expected  that  encouragement 
and  support,  amid  the  painful  and  perplexing  labors  in 
which  he  was  then  involved,  which  it  is  indeed  melan 
choly  to  recollect  were  not  accorded  to  him.  It  must  be 
confessed,  though,  that  there  were  some  then  in  Congress, 
both  from  the  North  and  from  the  South,  who  did  not 
seem  to  feel  any  serious  alarm  for  the  fate  of  the  country. 
Among  these,  Mr.  Seward,  of  New  York,  in  so  many 
ways  distinguished  in  the  latter  years  of  the  republic, 
was  apparently  as  calm  and  unexcited  as  he  could  have 
been  in  times  most  free  from  commotion  and  conflict; 
and  I  well  recollect  about  this  period  that  this  gentle 
man  expressed  himself  as  follows:  "And  this  brings  me 
to  the  great  and  all-absorbing  argument  that  the  Union 
is  in  danger  of  being  dissolved,  and  that  it  can  only  be 
saved  by  compromise.  I  do  not  know  what  I  would  not 
do  to  save  the  Union,  and  therefore  I  shall  bestow  upon 
this  subject  a  very  deliberate  consideration. 

"I  do  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  entire  delegation 
from  the  slave  states,  although  they  differ  in  regard  to  the 
details  of  the  compromise  proposed,  and,  perhaps,  in  re 
gard  to, the  exact  circumstances  of  the  crisis,  seem  to  con 
cur  in  this  momentous  warning.  Nor  do  I  doubt  at  all 
the  patriotic  devotion  to  the  Union  which  is  expressed 
by  those  from  whom  this  warning  proceeds.  And  yet, 
sir,  although  such  warnings  have  been  uttered  with  im 
passioned  solemnity  in  my  hearing  ever}?-  day  for  near 
three  months,  my  confidence  in  the  Union  remains  un 
shaken.  I  think  they  are  to  be  received  with  no  incon 
siderable  distrust,  because  they  are  uttered  under  the  in- 


MB.  SEWARD   OPPOSED  TO  COMPROMISE.  123 

fluence  of  a  controlling  interest  to  be  secured,  a  paramount 
object  to  be  gained,  and  that  is,  an  equilibrium  of  power 
in  the  republic.  I  think  they  are  to  be  received  with 
even  more  distrust,  because,  with  the  most  profound  re 
spect,  they  are  uttered  under  an  obviously  high  excite 
ment.  Nor  is  that  excitement  an  •unnatural  one.  It  is 
a  law  of  our  nature  that  the  passions  disturb  the  reason 
and  judgment  just  in  proportion  to  the  importance  of  the 
occasion,  and  the  consequent  necessity  for  calmness  and 
candor.  I  think  they  are  to  be  distrusted,  because  there 
is  a  diversity  of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  nature  and  op 
eration  of  this  excitement.  The  senators  from  some 
states  say  that  it  has  brought  all  parties  in  their  own  re 
gion  into  unanimity.  The  honorable  senator  from  Ken 
tucky  (Mr.  Clay)  says  that  the  danger  lies  in  the  violence 
of  party  spirit,  and  refers  us  for  proof  to  the  difficulties 
which  attend  :the  organization  of  the  House  of  Eepresent- 
atives. 

"  Sir,  in  my  humble  judgment,  it  is  not  the  fierce  con 
flict  of  parties  that  we  are  seeing  and  hearing,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  the  agony  of  distracted  parties — a  convul 
sion  resulting  from  the  too  narrow  foundations  of  both 
the  great  parties,  and  of  all  parties — foundations  laid  in 
compromises  of  natural  justice  and  of  human  liberty.  A 
question,  a  moral  question,  transcending  the  too  narrow 
creeds  of  parties,  has  arisen ;  the  public  conscience  ex 
pands  with  it,  and  the  green  withes  of  party  associations 
give  way  and  break,  and  fall  off  from  it.  No,  sir;  it  is 
not  the  state  that  is  dying  of  the  fever  of  party  spirit. 
It  is  merely  a  paralysis  of  parties,  premonitory,  however, 
of  their  restoration,  with  new  elements  of  health  and  vig- 


124:  SCYLLA   AND   CHARYBDIS. 

or  to  be  imbibed  from  that  spirit  of  the  age  which  is  so 
justly  called  Progress.  Nor  is  the  evil  that  of  unli 
censed,  irregular,  and  turbulent  faction.  We  are  told 
that  twenty  legislatures  are  in  session,  burning  like  fur 
naces,  heating  and  inflaming  the  popular  passions.  But 
these  twenty  legislatures  are  constitutional  furnaces. 
They  are  performing  their  customary  functions,  impart 
ing  healthful  heat  and  vitality  while  within  their  consti 
tutional  jurisdiction.  If  they  rage  beyond  its  limits,  the 
popular  passions  of  this  country  are  not  at  all,  I  think, 
in  danger  of  being  inflamed  to  excess.  No,  sir;  let  none 
of  these  fires  be  extinguished.  Forever  let  them  burn 
and  blaze.  They  are  neither  ominous  meteors  nor  bale 
ful  comets,  but  planets;  and, 'bright  and  intense  as  their 
heat  may  be,  it  is  their  native  temperature,  and  they 
must  still  obey  the  law  which,  by  attraction  toward  this 
solar  centre,  holds  them  in  their  spheres." 

Early  one  morning  at  this  troublous  crisis,  General 
Lewis  Cass,  ever  vigilant  and  active  when  the  interests 
of  the  country  demanded  that  he  should  be  watching 
and  laboring  for  its  welfare,  visited  me  at  my  boarding- 
house,  and  communicated  to  me  the  anxiety  which  he 
began  to  feel  for  the  fate  of  the  resolution  which  I  had 
introduced  for  raising  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  and 
urged  me  to  bring  the  Senate  to  a  vote  upon  it  as  early 
as  possible,  suggesting  even  that  if  I  could  ascertain  that 
there  were  a  sufficient  number  of  the  senatorial  friends 
of  the  resolution  then  in  the  city  to  secure  its  adoption, 
to  call  it  up  and  invoke  definite  action  upon  it  that  very 
morning.  Thus  admonished,  though  feeble  in  health,  I 
traversed  the  city  of  Washington  in  every  direction,  in 


MR.  WEBSTER — HIS   UNBENDING   PATRIOTISM.      125 

order  to  ascertain  what  senators  would  be  probably  in 
attendance;  and  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  if  Mr. 
Webster,  who  had  been  absent  from  the  Senate  for 
several  days,  could  be  induced  to  occupy  his  seat  that 
morning,  the  resolution  could,  in  all  probability,  be  car 
ried  through  by  a  meagre  majority,  I  immediately  dis 
patched  a  note  to  this  gentleman's  house  by  a  special 
messenger,  apprising  him  of  the  expected  movement,  and 
of  the  desire  which  I  felt  for  his  presence  and  co-opera 
tive  aid.  He  came  to  the  Senate  accordingly.  No  soon 
er  did  this  gentleman  reach  his  seat  than  he  was  sur 
rounded  by  an  earnest  crowd  of  his  New  England  friends, 
some  of  whom,  as  I  afterward  learned  from  his  own  lips, 
came  to  dissuade  him  from  voting  for  my  pacificatory  res 
olution.  He  likewise  informed  me,  in  an  interview  which 
presently  occurred  between  its,  that  he  had  received 
while  in  his  seat,  only  a  few  minutes  before,  two  pressing 
epistolary  missives  from  political  friends  in  the  House  of 
Kepresentatives,  urging  him  not  farther  to  risk  his  popu 
larity  and  influence  by  efforts  in  support  of  measures  of 
compromise.  Under  these  trying  circumstances,  this  au 
gust  personage  proposed  to  me  that  I  should  agree  to 
unite  with  him  in  supporting  a  motion  which  he  pro 
posed  in  an  hour  or  two  to  offer  for  taking  up  for  sepa 
rate  consideration  the  California  Bill,  in  consideration  of 
his  aiding  me  in  getting  my  own  resolution  immediately 
passed.  Pie  stated  that,  if  allowed  to  make  known  this 
arrangement  before  giving  his  vote  for  raising  the  Com 
mittee  of  Thirteen,  he  thought  it  would  satisfy  certain  of 
his  friends  whose  sensibilities  he  was  unwilling  needless 
ly  to  wound.  To  this  proposition  I  could  not  but  ac- 


126  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

cede,  considering,  as  I  did,  and  as  I  then  explained  to 
Mr.  Webster  himself,  that  if  all  the  measures  of  compro 
mise,  including  the  Nil  for  admitting  California,  should 
have  been  once  referred  to  the  Committee  of  Thirteen, 
there  were  insuperable  parliamentary  obstacles  to  taking 
up  any  one  of  these  bills  separately,  unless  a  motion  for 
the  reconsideration  of  the  resolution  of  reference  should 
be  first  carried.  Immediately  after  this  conversation, 
Mr.  Webster  returned  to  his  seat,  when  I  called  up  my 
resolution.  When  it  was  put  upon  its  passage,  Mr.  Web 
ster  rose  and  stated  his  intention  to  vote  for  raising  the 
Committee  of  Thirteen,  but  took  occasion  also  to  mention 
in  the  hearing  of  the  Senate  the  arrangement  which  he 
and  I  had  entered  into,  as  already  described.  This  im 
mediately  called  forth  language  of  indignant  surprise 
from  my  own  senatorial  colleague,  Mr.  Davis,  from  Mr. 
Butler,  of  South  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Clemens,  of  Alabama, 
who  seemed  to  object  very  strongly  to  ike  private  under 
standing  between  Mr.  Webster  and  myself  of  which  they 
had  just  been  apprised,  and  one  or  the  other  of  them  in 
sinuated  something  about  the  movement  being  an  illicit 
one,  and  threatened  even  to  vote  against  the  resolution. 
I  went  immediately  to  the  seats  of  these  gentlemen,  made 
such  an  explanation  of  what  had  occurred  as  the  circum 
stances  so  easily  admitted  of,  and  succeeded  in  so  far 
pacifying  them  that  they  all  voted  for  the  resolution, 
which  presently  passed. 

The  committee  had  now  to  be  formed.  According  to 
the  terms  of  the  resolution  which  had  been  adopted,  the 
Senate  would  have  to  designate  the  members  of  the  com 
mittee  by  ballot.  Senatorial  comity  allowing  the  mover 


COMMITTEE   OF   THIRTEEN.  127 

of  the  resolution  the  privilege  of  naming  the  persons  to 
be  placed  on  the  committee,  I  caused  a  list  of  the  mem 
bers  thereof  to  be  laid  on  the  desks  of  the  senators,  and 
the  following  gentlemen  were  unanimously  voted  into  the 
committee:  Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  chairman;  Dickin 
son,  of  New  York ;  Phelps,  of  Vermont ;  Bell,  of  Tennes 
see  ;  Cass,  of  Michigan  ;  Webster,  of  Massachusetts ;  Ber- 
rien,  of  Georgia ;  Cooper,  of  Pennsylvania ;  Downs,  of 
Louisiana ;  King,  of  Alabama ;  Mangum,  of  North  Caro 
lina  ;  Mason,  of  Virginia  ;  and  Bright,  of  Indiana,  Six 
of  these  gentlemen  were  Democrats,  six  of  them  were 
Whigs ;  six  were  Southern  men,  and  six  were  Northern 
men ;  with  Henry  Clay,  the  Nestor  of  the  Senate  (who 
was  now  no  longer  a  party  man,  and  who  had  emphat 
ically  announced  himself  as  knowing  "no  North  and  no 
South,  no  East  and  no  West"),  as  chairman.  A  fairer 
committee  was  never  formed,  and  no  committee  was 
ever  better  fitted,  as  the  event  soon  proved,  wisely  and 
successfully  to  execute  the  important  task  allotted  to  it. 

In  a  few  days,  Mr.  Clay,  who  had  retired  to  the  coun 
try  in  order  to  draw  the  bills  which  the  committee  was 
expected  to  report,  returned  to  the  Senate,  and  announced 
the  following  programme  for  the  future  action  of  the  Sen 
ate,  accompanying  the  same  with  an  elaborate  and  well- 
drawn  report,  which  it  is  judged  unnecessary  to  insert 
here : 

"1st.  The  admission  of  any  new  state  or  states  formed 
out  of  Texas  to  be  postponed  until  they  shall  hereafter 
present  themselves  to  be  received  into  the  Union,  when 
it  will  be  the  duty  of  Congress  fairly  and  faithfully  to  ex 
ecute  the  compact  with  Texas  by  admitting  such  new 
state  or  states. 


128  SCYLLA   AND   CHARY13DIS. 

"2d.  The  admission  forthwith  of  California  into  the 
Union,  with  the  boundaries  which  she  has  proposed. 

"3d.  The  establishment  of  territorial  governments,  with 
out  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  for  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  em 
bracing  all  the  territory  recently  acquired  from  Mexico 
not  contained  in  the  boundaries  of  California. 

"4th.  The  combination  of  these  two  last  measures  in 
the  same  bill. 

"5th.  The  establishment  of  the  western  and  northern 
boundaries  of  Texas,  and  the  exclusion  from  her  jurisdic 
tion  of  all  New  Mexico,  with  the  grant  to  Texas  of  a  pe 
cuniary  equivalent ;  and  the  section  for  that  purpose  to 
be  incorporated  in  the  bill  admitting  California  and  es 
tablishing  territorial  governments  for  Utah  and  New 
Mexico. 

"  6th.  More  effectual  enactments  of  law  to  secure  the 
prompt  delivery  of  persons  bound  to  service  or  labor  in 
one  state  under  the  laws  thereof,  who  escape  into  another 
state;  and, 

"  7th.  Abstaining  from  abolishing  slavery,  but,  under  a 
heavy  penalty,  prohibiting  the  slave-trade  in  the  District 
of  Columbia." 


MR.  CLAY   AND   MR.  WEBSTER.  129 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Great  Compromise  Struggle  of  1850. — Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster  the  prin 
cipal  Figures  in  the  Picture. —  Mr.  Webster's  7th  of  March  Speech, 
and  its  prodigious  Effect  upon  the  Public  Mind. — Striking  Extracts 
therefrom. — Mr.  Calhoun's  last  Speech  in  the  Senate,  in  which  he  urges 
that  the  Admission  of  California  shall  be  made  a  test  Question. — Em 
phatic  Protest  by  the  Author  to  this  Portion  of  the  Speech,  and  painful 
Altercation  with  Mr.  Calhoun  in  Reference  to  the  disputed  Point. — 
Proceedings  of  the  Nashville  Convention. — Wise  and  patriotic  Conduct 
of  Judge  Sharkey,  the  President  thereof,  which  prevents  immediate 
Mischief. — Judge  Sharkey  arrives  in  Washington,  and  is  offered  the 
Department  of  War,  which  he  declines. — Some  Account  of  Judge  Shar- 
key's  Life  and  Character. 

THE  contest  between  the  friends  of  peace  and  those 
whose  conduct  was  at  this  period  seriously  threatening 
to  disturb  the  public  repose,  was  now  fairly  in  progress. 
Of  all  the  champions  of  the  measures  of  compromise,  Mr. 
Clay  and  Mr.  Webster  undoubtedly  commanded  the  lar 
gest  share  of  the  public  respect,  and  their  course  in  Con 
gress  awakened  in  various  quarters  much  both  of  com 
mendation  and  of  dispraise.  Mr.  Clay  had  delivered  at 
an  early  period  of  the  session  several  speeches  of  marked 
ability  and  eloquence,  which  had  called  forth  gratifying 
responses  in  all  parts  of  the  republic.  It  was  now  evi 
dent  that  old  party  prejudices  were  fast  giving  way  to 
sentiments  of  a  very  different  character  all  over  the  land. 
Public  men  of  considerable  prominence  and  of  no  mean 
influence,  who  had  been  the  steady  and  unswerving  op- 


130  SCYLLA  AXD   CHAKYBDIS, 

ponents  of  the  measures  of  policy  in  past  times  advo 
cated  by  Mr.  Clay  even  from  the  commencement  of  their 
political  career,  were  every  day  approaching  him  kindly, 
and  tendering  to  him  their  future  friendship  and  support. 
Many  of  the  old  supporters  of  Jackson  were  seen  to  come 
into  his  presence,  and  were  heard  to  avow  their  devotion 
to  his  person  and  character.  Men  from  whom  he  had 
been  estranged  for  twenty  years,  and  who  were  known 
to  have  pursued  him  at  a  former  period  with  charges  of 
a  nature  even  to  touch  his  reputation  for  integrity,  were 
now  heard  to  disavow  these  charges  formally,  and  to  con 
fess  that  they  had  done  him  the  most  cruel  injustice.  It 
was  most  evident  to  all  that  no  living  man  could  do  so 
much  as  Mr.  Clay  then  had  it  in  his  power  to  do  to  sup 
press  the  commotion  which  was  already  furiously  raging, 
and  to  keep  in  abeyance,  for  the  present  at  least,  the  hor 
rors  of  intestine  conflict.  About  this  time,  at  Mr.  Clay's 
instance,  I  addressed  numerous  letters  to  eminent  and 
well-known  persons  residing  in  various  states  of  the 
Union,  asking  their  opinion  of  the  compromise  measures, 
their  replies  to  which  were  uniformly  published  in  the 
Union  newspaper,  then  edited  by  the  veteran  Eitchie,  and 
were  supposed  by  some  to  have  had  a  more  or  less  ben 
eficial  effect  in  maturing  public  sentiment,  and  in  remov 
ing  prejudice  from  the  minds  of  good  citizens. 

Mr.  Webster's  7th  of  March  speech,  delivered,  as  will 
be  observed,  anterior  to  the  raising  of  the  Committee  of 
Thirteen,  had  produced  beneficial  effects  every  where, 
which  effects  were  displaying  themselves  throughout  the 
republic.  His  statement  of  facts  was  generally  looked 
upon  as  unanswerable;  his  argumentative  conclusions 


MR.  WEBSTER'S  TTH  OF  MARCH  SPEECH.        131 

appeared  to  be  inevitable ;  his  mild,  conciliatory,  and 
persuasive  tone  had  penetrated  and  softened  the  sensi 
bilities  of  all  patriots.  What  reasonable  and  well-inten 
tioned  man  could  indeed  refuse  his  assent  to  such  prop 
ositions  as  the  following,  which  are  extracted  from  that 
same  memorable  speech  ?  "  My  opinion  has  been,  that 
we  have  territory  enough,  and  that  we  should  follow  the 
Spartan  maxim,  'Improve,  adorn  what  you  have;'  seek 
no  farther.  I  think  that  it  was  in  some  observations 
that  I  made  on  the  Three-million  Loan  Bill  that  I  avowed 
this  sentiment.  In  short,  sir,  it  has  been  avowed  quite 
as  often,  in  as  many  places,  and  before  as  many  as 
semblies,  as  any  humble  opinions  of  mine  ought  to  be 
avowed. 

"But  now  that,  under  certain  conditions,  Texas  is  in 
the  Union,  with  all  her  territory,  as  a  slave  state,  with  a 
solemn  pledge  also  that,  if  she  shall  be  divided  into  many 
states,  those  states  may  come  in  as  slave  states  south  of 
86°  30',  how  are  we  to  deal  with  this  subject?  I  know 
no  way  of  honest  legislation,  when  the  proper  time  comes 
for  the  enactment,  but  to  carry  into  effect  all  that  we 
have  stipulated  to  do.  I  do  not  entirely  agree  with  my 
honorable  friend  from  Tennessee,*  that,  as  soon  as  the 
time  comes  when  she  is  entitled  to  another  representa 
tive,  we  should  create  a  new  state.  On  former  occasions, 
in  creating  new  states  out  of  territories,  we  have  general 
ly  gone  upon  the  idea  that,  when  the  population  of  the 
territory  amounts  to  about  sixty  thousand,  we  would 
consent  to  its  admission  as  a  state.  But  it  is  quite  a  dif 
ferent  thing  when  a  state  is  divided,  and  two  or  more 

*  Mr.  Bell. 


132  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

states  made  out  of  it.  It  does  not  follow  in  such  a  case 
that  the  same  rule  of  apportionment  should  be  applied. 
That,  however,  is  a  matter  for  the  consideration  of  Con 
gress  when  the  proper  time  arrives.  I  may  not  then  be 
here;  I  may  have  no  vote  to  give  on  the  occasion;  but 
I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood  that,  according  to 
my  view  of  the  matter,  this  government  is  solemnly 
pledged,  by  law  and  contract,  to  create  new  states  out  of 
Texas,  with  her  consent,  when  her  population  shall  justi 
fy  and  call  for  such  a  proceeding,  and,  so  far  as  such 
states  are  formed  out  of  Texan  territory  lying  south  of 
36°  30',  to  let  them  come  in  as  slave  states.  That  is  the 
meaning  of  the  contract  which  our  friends,  the  Northern 
Democracy,  have  left  us  to  fulfill ;  and  I,  for  one,  mean 
to  fulfill  it,  because  I  will  not  violate  the  faith  of  the  gov 
ernment.  What  I  mean  to  say  is,  that  the  time  for  the 
admission  of  new  states  formed  out  of  Texas,  the  number 
of  such  states,  their  boundaries,  the  requisite  amount  of 
population,  and  all  other  things  connected  with  the  ad 
mission,  are  in  the  free  discretion  of  Congress,  except 
this,  to  wit,  that,  when  new  states  formed  out  of  Texas 
are  to  be  admitted,  they  have  a  right,  by  legal  stipulation 
and  contract,  to  come  in  as  slave  states. 

u  Now,  as  to  California  and  New  Mexico,  I  hold  slav 
ery  to  be  excluded  from  those  territories  by  a  law  even 
superior  to  that  which  admits  and  sanctions  it  in  Texas: 
I  mean  the  law  of  Nature,  of  physical  geography — the 
law  of  the  formation  of  the  earth.  That  law  settles  for 
ever,  with  a  strength  beyond  all'terms  of  human  enact 
ment,  that  slavery  can  not  exist  in  California  or  New 
Mexico.  Understand  me,  sir;  I  mean  slavery  as  we  re- 


MR.  WEBSTER'S  TTH  OF  MARCH  SPEECH.        133 

gard  it — the  slavery  of  the  colored  race  as  it  exists  in  the 
Southern  States.  I  shall  not  discuss  the  point,  but  leave 
it  to  the  learned  gentlemen  who  have  undertaken  to  dis 
cuss  it ;  but  I  suppose  there  is  no  slavery  of  that  descrip 
tion  in  California  now.  I  understand  that  peonism,  a  sort 
of  penal  servitude,  exists  there,  or,  rather,  a  sort  of  vol 
untary  sale  of  a  man  and  his  offspring  for  debt,  an  ar 
rangement  of  a  peculiar  nature  known  to  the  law  of  Mex 
ico.  But  what  I  mean  to  say  is,  that  it  is  as  impossible 
that  African  slavery,  as  we  see  it  among  us,  should  find 
its  way,  or  be  introduced  into  California  and  New  Mexico, 
as  any  other  natural  impossibility.  California  and  New 
Mexico  are  Asiatic  in  their  formation  and  scenery.  They 
are  composed  of  vast  ridges  of  mountains  of  great  height, 
with  broken  ridges  and  deep  valleys.  The  sides  of  these 
mountains  are  entirely  barren,  their  tops  capped  by  pe 
rennial  snow.  There  may  be  in  California,  now  made 
free  by  its  Constitution,  and  no  doubt  there  are,  some 
tracts  of  valuable  land.  But  it  is  not  so  in  New  Mexico. 
Pray,  what  is  the  evidence  which  every  gentleman  must 
have  obtained  on  this  subject  from  information  sought 
by  himself  or  communicated  by  others  ?  I  have  inquired 
and  read  all  I  could  find,  in  order  to  acquire  information 
on  this  important  subject.  What  is  there  in  New  Mex 
ico  that  could  by  any  possibility  induce  any  body  to  go 
there  with  slaves  ?  There  are  some  narrow  strips  of  till 
able  land  on  the  borders  of  the  rivers,  but  the  rivers 
themselves  dry  up  before  midsummer  is  gone.  All  that 
the  people  can  do  in  that  region  is  to  raise  some  little 
articles,  some  little  wheat  for  their  tortillas,  and  that  by 
irrigation.  And  who  expects  to  sec  a  hundred  black 


134  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

men  cultivating  tobacco,  corn,  cotton,  rice,  or  any  thing 
else,  on  lands  in  New  Mexico  made  fertile  only  by  irriga 
tion? 

UI  look  upon  it,  therefore,  as  a  fixed  fact,  to  use  the 
current  expression  of  the  day,  that  both  California  and 
New  Mexico  are  destined  to  be  free,  so  far  as  they  arc 
settled  at  all,  which  I  believe,  in  regard  to  New  Mexico, 
will  be  but  partially  for  a  great  length  of  time — free  by 
the  arrangement  of  things  ordained  by  the  Power  above 
us.  I  have  therefore  to  say,  in  this  respect  also,  that  this 
country  is  fixed  for  freedom  to  as  many  persons  as  shall 
ever  live  in  it  by  a  less  repealable  law  than  that  which 
attaches  to  the  right  of  holding  slaves  in  Texas :  and  I 
will  farther  say,  that,  if  a  resolution  or  a  bill  were  now 
before  us  to  provide  a  territorial  government  for  New 
Mexico,  I  would  not  vote  to  put  any  prohibition  into  it 
whatever.  Such  a  prohibition  would  be  idle,  as  it  re 
spects  any  effect  it  would  have  upon  the  territory ;  and 
I  would  not  take  pains  uselessly  to  reaffirm  an  ordinance 
of  Nature  nor  to  re-enact  the  will  of  God.  I  would  put 
in  no  Wilmot  Proviso  for  the  mere  purpose  of  a  taunt  or 
a  reproach.  I  would  put  into  it  no  evidence  of  the  votes 
of  superior  power,  exercised  for  no  purpose  but  to  wound 
the  pride — whether  a  just  and  a  rational  pride,  or  an  ir 
rational  pride — of  the  citizens  of  the  Southern  States.  I 
have  no  such  object,  no  such  purpose.  They  would  think 
it  a  taunt,  an  indignity ;  they  would  think  it  to  be  an  act 
taking  away  from  them  what  they  regard. as  a  proper 
equality  of  privilege.  Whether  they  expect  to  realize 
any  benefit  from  it  or  not,  they  would  think  it  at  least  a 
plain  theoretic  wrong,  that  something  more  or  less  derog- 


MR,  WEBSTER  ON  THE   WILMOT  PROVISO.          135 

atory  to  their  character  and  their  rights  had  taken  place. 
I  propose  to  inflict  no  such  wound  upon  any  body,  unless 
something  essentially  important  to  the  country,  and  effi 
cient  to  the  preservation  of  liberty  and  freedom,  is  to  be 
effected.  I  repeat,  therefore,  sir,  and  as  I  do  not  propose 
to  address  the  Senate  often  on  this  subject,  I  repeat  it 
because  I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood,  that,  for  the 
reasons  stated,  if  a  proposition  were  now  here  to  estab 
lish  a  government  for  New  Mexico,  and  it  was  moved  to 
insert  a  provision  for  a  prohibition  of  slavery,  I  would 
not  vote  for  it. 

"Sir,  if  we  were  now  making  a  government  for  New 
Mexico,  and  any  body  should  propose  a  Wilmot  Proviso, 
I  should  treat  it  exactly  as  Mr.  Polk  treated  that  provision 
for  excluding  slavery  from  Oregon.  Mr.  Polk  was  known 
to  be  in  opinion  decidedly  averse  to  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
but  he  felt  the  necessity  of  establishing  a  government  for 
the  Territory  of  Oregon.  The  proviso  was  in  the  bill, 
but  he  knew  it  would  be  entirely  nugatory ;  and  since  it 
must  be  entirely  nugatory,  since  it  took  away  no  right, 
no  describable,  no  tangible,  no  appreciable  right  of  the 
South,  he  said  he  would  sign  the  bill  for  the  sake  of 
enacting  a  law  to  form  a  government  in  that  territorj^ 
and  let  that  entirely  useless  and,  in  that  connection,  en 
tirely  senseless  proviso  remain.  Sir,  we  hear  occasional 
ly  of  the  annexation  of  Canada ;  and  if  there  be  any  man, 
any  of  the  Northern  Democracy,  or  any  one  of  the  Free- 
soil  party,  who  supposes  it  necessary  to  insert  a  Wilmot 
Proviso  in  a  territorial  government  for  New  Mexico,  that 
man  would  of  course  be  of  opinion  that  it  is  necessaryto 
protect  the  everlasting  snows  of  Canada  from  the  foot  of 


136  SCYLLA   AND   CHARYBDIS. 

slavery  by  tlie  same  overspreading  wing  of  an  act  of  Con 
gress.  Sir,  wherever  there  is  a  substantive  good  to  be 
done,  wherever  there  is  a  foot  of  land  to  be  prevented 
from  becoming  slave  territory,  I  am  ready  to  assert  the 
principle  of  the  exclusion  of  slavery.  I  am  pledged  to  it 
•from  the  year  1837 ;  I  have  been  pledged  to  it  again  and 
again,  and  I  will  perform  those  pledges ;  but  I  will  not 
do  a  thing  unnecessarily  that  wounds  the  feelings  of  oth 
ers,  or  that  does  discredit  to  my  own  understanding. 

"Now,  Mr.  President,  I  have  established,  so  far  as  I 
proposed  to  do  so,  the  proposition  wrth  which  I  set  out, 
and  upon  which  I  intend  to  stand  or  fall,  and  that  is,  that 
the  whole  territory  within  the  former  United  States,  or 
in  the  newly  acquired  Mexican  provinces,  has  a  fixed  and 
settled  character — now  fixed  and  settled  by  law  which  can 
not  be  repealed,  in  the  case  of  Texas,  without  a  violation 
of  public  faith,  and  by  no  human  power  in  regard  to  Cal 
ifornia  or  New  Mexico ;  that  therefore  under  one  or  oth 
er  of  these  laws  every  foot  of  land  in  the  states  or  in  the 
territories  has  already  received  a  fixed  and  decided  char 
acter." 

After  referring  to  the  Convention  then  expected  to  be 
held  at  Nashville,  and  expressing  a  hope  that  if  "  worthy 
gentlemen"  should  meet  there  in  convention,  "their  object 
will  be  to  adopt  conciliatory  measures;"  after  advising 
"the  South  to  forbearance  and  moderation,"  and  advis 
ing  the  North  to  forbearance  and  moderation  "also,"  he 
brings  this  last  of  his  great  parliamentary  efforts  to  a 
close  in  the  following  grand  and  impressive  manner : 

"  Sir,  I  wish  now  to  make  two  remarks,  and  hasten  to 
a  conclusion.  I  wish  to  say,  in  regard  to  Texas,  that  if 


MR.  WEBSTER  ON  THE   COMPROMISE   OF   1850,     137 

it  should  be  hereafter  at  any  time  the  pleasure  of  the  gov 
ernment  of  Texas  to  cede  to  the  United  States  a  portion, 
larger  or  smaller,  of  her  territory  which  lies  adjacent  to 
New  Mexico  and  north  of  36°  30'  of  north  latitude,  to  be 
formed  into  free  states,  for  a  fair  equivalent  in  money  or 
in  the  payment  of  her  debt,  I  think  it  an  object  well  wor 
thy  the  consideration  of  Congress,  and  I  shall  be  happy 
to  concur  in  it  myself,  if  I  should  have  a  connection  with 
the  government  at  that  time. 

"I  have  one  other  remark  to  make.  In  my  observa 
tions  upon  slavery  as  it  has  existed  in  this  country  and 
as  it  now  exists,  I  have  expressed  no  opinion  of  the  mode 
of  its  extinguishment  or  melioration.  I  will  say,  how 
ever,  though  I  have  nothing  to  propose,  because  I  do  not 
deem  myself  so  competent  as  other  gentlemen  to  take  any 
lead  on  this  subject,  that  if  any  gentleman  from  the  South 
shall  propose  a  scheme  to  be  carried  on  by  this  govern 
ment  upon  a  large  scale  for  the  transportation  of  free  col 
ored  people  to  any  colony  or  any  place  in  the  world,  I 
should  be  quite  disposed  to  incur  almost  any  degree  of 
expense  to  accomplish  that  object.  Nay,  sir,  following 
an  example  set  more  than  twenty  years  ago  by  a  great 
man,*  then  a  senator  from  New  York,  I  would  return  to 
Virginia,  and  through  her  to  the  whole  South,  the  money 
received  from  the  lands  and  territories  ceded  by  her  to 
this  government  for  any  such  purpose  as  to  remove,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  or  in  any  way  to  diminish  or  deal  Ben 
eficially  with,  the  free  colored  population  of  the  Southern 
States.  I  have  said  that  I  honor  Virginia  for  her  cession 
of  this  territory.  There  have  been  received  into  the 

*  Mr.  Rufus  King. 


138  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

treasury  of  the  United  States  eighty  millions  of  dollars, 
the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  ceded  by 
her.  If  the  residue  should  be  sold  at  the  same  rate,  the 
whole  aggregate  will  exceed  two  hundred  millions  of  dol 
lars.  If  Virginia  and  the  South  see  fit  to  adopt  any  prop 
osition  to  relieve  themselves  from  the  free  people  of  color 
among  them,  or  such  as  may  be  made  free,  they  have  my 
full  consent  that  the  government  shall  pay  them  any  sum 
of  money  out  of  the  proceeds  of  that  cession  which  may 
be  adequate  to  the  purpose. 

"  And  now,  Mr.  President,  I  draw  these  observations  to 
a  close.  I  have  spoken  freely,  and  I  meant  to-  do  so.  I 
have  sought  to  make  no  display.  I  have  sought  to  en 
liven  the  occasion  by  no  animated  discussion,  nor  have  I 
attempted  any  train  of  elaborate  argument.  I  have  wish 
ed  only  to  speak  my  sentiments  fully  and  at  length,  being 
desirous,  once  and  for  all,  to  let  the  Senate  know,  and  to 
let  the  country  know,  the  opinions  and  sentiments  which 
I  entertain  on  all  these  subjects.  These  opinions  are  not 
likely  to  be  suddenly  changed.  If  there  be  any  future 
service  that  I  can  render  to  the  country  consistently  with 
these  sentiments  and  opinions,  I  shall  cheerfully  render 
it.  If  there  be  not,  I  shall  still  be  glad  to  have  had  an 
opportunity  to  disburden  myself  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart,  and  to  make  known  every  political  sentiment  that 
therein  exists. 

"And  now,  Mr.  President,  instead  of  speaking  of  the 
possibility  or  utility  of  secession,  instead  of  dwelling  in 
those  caverns  of  darkness,  instead  of  groping  with  those 
ideas  so  full  of  all  that  is  horrid  and  horrible,  let  us  come 
out  into  the  light  of  day ;  let  us  enjoy  the  fresh  air  of 


MR.  WEBSTER  ON  THE   VALUE   OF  THE   UNION,    139 

liberty  and  union ;  let  us  cherish  those  hopes  which  be 
long  to  us ;  let  us  devote  ourselves  to  those  great  objects 
that  are  fit  for  our  consideration  and  our  action ;  let  us 
raise  our  conceptions  to  the  magnitude  and  the  import 
ance  of  the  duties  that  devolve  upon  us ;  let  our  compre 
hension  be  as  broad  as  the  country  for  which  we  act,  oar 
aspirations  as  high  as  its  certain  destiny ;  let  us  not  be 
pigmies  in  a  case  that  calls  for  men.  Never  did  there 
devolve  on  any  generation  of  men  higher  trusts  than 
now  devolve  upon  us,  for  the  preservation  of  this  Con 
stitution  and  the  harmony  and  peace  of  all  who  are  des 
tined  to  live  under  it.  Let  us  make  our  generation  one 
of  the  strongest  and  brightest  links  in  that  golden  chain 
which  is  destined,  I  fondly  believe,  to  grapple  tl;e  people 
of  all  the  states  to  this  Constitution  for  ages  to  come. , 
We  have  a  great,  popular,  constitutional  government, 
guarded  by  law  and  by  judicature,  and  defended  by  the 
affections  of  the  whole  people.  No  monarchical  throne 
presses  these  states  together,  no  iron  chain  of  military 
power  encircles  them ;  they  live  and  stand  under  a  gov 
ernment  popular  in  its  form,  representative  in  its  charac 
ter,  founded  upon  principles  of  equality,  and  so  construct 
ed,  we  hope,  as  to  last  forever.  In  all  its  history  it  has 
been  beneficent;  it  has  trodden  down  no  man's  liberty, 
it  has  crushed  no  state.  Its  daily  respiration  is  liberty 
and  patriotism ;  its  yet  youthful  veins  are  full  of  enter 
prise,  courage,  and  honorable  love  of  glory  and  renown. 
Large  before,  the  country  has  now,  by  recent  events,  be 
come  vastly  larger.  This  republic  now  extends,  with  a 
vast  breadth,  across  the  whole  continent.  The  two  great 
seas  of  the  world  wash  the  one  and  the  other  shore.  We 


140  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

realize  on  a  mighty  scale  the  beautiful  description  of  the 
ornamental  border  of  the  buckler  of  Achilles : 

"  '  Now,  the  broad  shield  complete  the  artist  crowned 
With  his  last  hand,  and  poured  the  ocean  round ; 
In  living  silver  seemed  the  waves  to  roll, 
And  beat  the  buckler's  verge,  and  bound  the  whole.' " 

In  bringing  to  notice  Mr.  Webster's  very  pointed  allu 
sion  to  the  Nashville  Convention,  I  am  reminded  of  a 
scene  which  occurred  in  the  Senate  a  week  or  two  only 
anterior  to  the  death  of  Mr.  Calhoun.  His  last  extended 
speech  had  been  delivered  in  the  Senate  the  day  before, 
or,  rather,  Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  had  read  the  speech 
from  a  printed  pamphlet  in  a  very  slow  and  emphatic 
manner,  Mr.  Calhoun  being  himself  present,  and  occasion 
ally  imparting  additional  impressiveness  to  what  was  thus 
enunciated  by  particularly  significant  gestures.  There 
were  portions  of  it  which  struck  me  at  the  time  it  was 
read  as  unfortunate,  and  as  calculated  to  do  much  mis 
chief,  unless  their  influence  should  be  promptly  met  and 
counteracted.  I  feared  that  the  Nashville  Convention, 
which  was  then  again  in  session,  might  be  powerfully 
influenced  in  its  action  by  such  a  speech,  emanating  from 
a  source  so  distinguished,  and  embodying  the  views  of  a 
person  so  much  entitled  to  respect  and  confidence  as  I 
could  not  but  hold  Mr.  Calhoun  to  be.  It  was  most  pain 
ful  to  me  to  have  the  least  collision  with  one  whom  I 
certainly  loved  and  respected  as  much  as  I  did  any  man 
living,  but  I  did  not  see  how  I  could  get  over  entering 
my  Qmph&tiG protest  to  that  portion  of  the  speech  to  which 
I  am  now  referring.  So,  in  the  morning  hour,  and  be 
fore  the  speech  of  Mr.  Calhoun  could  be  distributed  over 


PAINFUL   SCENE   IN  THE   SENATE.  141 

the  country,  I  brought  the  subject  to  the  notice  of  the 
Senate,  and  the  following  scene  occurred,  as  reported  in 
the  Congressional  Globe. 

Mr.  Calhoun  had,  in  the  speech  referred  to,  demanded 
in  behalf  of  the  South  an  amendment  of  the  Federal  Con 
stitution,  which  he  urged  was  the  only  mode  left  for  the 
settlement  of  the  pending  sectional  questions.  Keferring 
to  the  North,  in  connection  with  the  proposition  of  con 
stitutional  amendment,  he  had  said:  "Nothing  else  can, 
with  any  certainty,  finally  and  forever  settle  the  ques 
tions  at  issue,  terminate  agitation,  and  save  the  Union. 
But  can  this  be  done  ?  Yes,  easily  ;  not  by  the  weaker 
party — for  it  can  of  itself  do  nothing,  not  even  protect  it 
self — but  by  the  stronger.  The  North  has  only  to  will 
it  to  accomplish  it,  to  do  justice  by  conceding  to  the 
South  an  equal  right  in  the  acquired  territory,  and  to  do 
her  duty  by  causing  the  stipulations  relative  to  fugitive 
slaves  to  be  faithfully  fulfilled,  to  cease  the  agitation  of 
the  slave  question,  and  to  provide  for  the  insertion  of  a 
provision  in  the  Constitution  by  an  amendment  which 
will  restore  to  the  South,  in  substance,  the  power  she 
possessed  before  the  equilibrium  between  the  sections 
was  destroyed  by  the  action  of  the  government.  There 
will  be  no  difficulty  in  devising  such  a  provision,  one 
that  will  protect  the  South,  and  which,  at  the  same  time, 
will  improve  and  strengthen  the  government,  instead  of 
impairing  and  weakening  it." 

Apprehending  that  this  new  demand  of  a  constitution 
al  amendment  might,  if  it  went  out  to  the  country  in  be 
half  of  the  South,  induce  the  Nashville  Convention  to 
adopt  it  as  a  sine  qua  non  to  settlement,  and  thus  fatally 


142  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

compromise  the  South,  on  the  next  morning  I  rose  up, 
and  respectfully  but  emphatically  entered  my  protest 
against  it.  Mr.  Calhoun  coming  in  while  I  was  doing  so, 
rose,  and,  interrupting  me,  said : 

"I  must  really  express  my  great  regret  that  a  member 
of  this  body,  in  my  absence  this  morning,  before  the  hour 
for  the  consideration  of  this  question,  should  have  en 
gaged  in  commenting  on  my  remarks  in  reference  to  the 
important  question  that  is  under  discussion.  I  had  not 
the  advantage  of  hearing  the  remarks  of  the  senator  from 
Mississippi.  Did  he  accuse  me  of  disunion?  Did  he 
mean  to  insinuate  that?" 

To  which  the  Congressional  Globe  reports  me  as  say 
ing,  in  reply : 

"I  regret  that  the  honorable  senator  was  not  in  his 
place.  My  only  reason  for  referring  to  it  at  this  time 
was,  that  I  did  not  expect  the  honorable  senator  to  be 
here  for  many  days.  I  thought  that  he  was  too  much  in 
disposed  to  be  present ;  and,  believing  that  I  should  have 
no  other  opportunity  for  seasonably  shielding  myself 
from  misjudgment,  I  determined  to  seize  the  present  oc 
casion  for  that  purpose.  Now,  I  will  say  to  the  honora 
ble  senator  from  South  Carolina  that  I  had  not  the  slight 
est  intention  of  imputing  to  him  designs  hostile  to  the 
Union.  I  said  that  his  motives  were,  doubtless,  patriotic. 
He  will  find  my  remarks,  when  reported  in  the  morning, 
to  be  somewhat  in  bad  taste,  because  so  exceedingly  en 
comiastic  in  regard  to  himself.  All  that  I  said  was,  that 
his  speech,  addressed  to  us  with  the  best  intentions,  did 
contain  certain  declarations,  which,  if  construed  as  I  feared 
they  would  be  construed,  would  be  regarded  as  insisting, 


IMPORTANT   ISSUE   MADE.  143 

on  the  part  of  the  South,  upon  demands  that  had  never 
before  been  set  up,  and  which  might  prove  fatal  to  the 
Union  if  not  abandoned." 

After  other  remarks  by  me  not  material  to  the  subject 
at  present  under  consideration,  Mr.  Calhoun  rose  again, 
and  concluded  a  very  animated  explanation  thus  : 

"But  I  will  say,  and  I  say  it  boldly,  for  I  am  not 
afraid  to  say  the  truth  on  any  question,  that,  as  things 
now  stand,  the  Southern  States  can  not  with  safety  remain 
in  the  Union.  When  this  question  may  be  settled,  when 
we  shall  come  to  a  constitutional  understanding,  is  a 
question  of  time ;  but,  as  things  now  stand,  I  appeal  to 
the  senator  from  Mississippi,  if  he  thinks  that  the  South 
can  remain  in  the  Union  upon  terms  of  equality  ?" 

To  which  I  am  reported  as  replying, 

"We  can  not,  unless  the  pending  questions  are  settled; 
but,  in  my  opinion,  these  questions  may  be  settled,  and 
honorably  settled  within  ten  days'1  time.'1'1 

Then  rejoined  Mr.  Calhoun, 

"Does  the  senator  think  that  the  South  can  remain  in 
the  Union  upon  terms  of  equality  without  a  specific  guar 
antee  that  she  shall  enjoy  her  rights  unmolested  ?" 

To  which  the  answer,  as  reported,  was, 

"I  think  she  may,  vuithout  any  previous  amendment  of 
the  Constitution.  There  we  disagree." 

Mr.  Calhoun  then  frankly  responded, 

"Yes,  there  we  disagree  entirely;  and  there,  I  think,  we 
disagree  with  our  ancestors.  I  agree  ivith  them"* 

*  It  has  been  supposed  by  some,  and  even  directly  charged,  that  Mr. 
Yanccy's  course  at  Baltimore,  referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter,  was 
prompted  by  Mr.  Calhoun.  I  am  myself  .satisfied  that  such  was  not  the 


14:4:  SCYLLA  AND   CHABYBDIS. 

Having  incidentally  alluded  in  this  chapter  to  the  Nash 
ville  Convention,  I  will  offer  a  few  observations  upon  the 

fact.  At  any  rate,  he  was  regarded  by  his  political  supporters  at  that 
time  to  be  very  distinctly  committed  to  non-intervention,  though  exceed 
ingly  hostile  to  what  he  and  others  were  accustomed  to  call  the  squatter 
sovereignty  doctrine.  On  the  occasion  of  organizing  a  territorial  govern 
ment  for  Oregon  in  the  month  of  June,  1849,  he  will  be  found  to  have 
expressed  himself  as  follows : 

"But  I  go  farther,  and  hold  that  justice  and  the  Constitution  are  the 
easiest  and  safest  ground  on  which  the  question  can  be  settled,  regarded 
in  reference  to  party.  Jt  may  be  setthd  on  that  ground  simply  by  non-ac 
tion — by  leaving  the  territories  free  and  open  to  the  emigration  of  all  the 
world,  so  long .  as  they  continue  so ;  and  when  they  become  states,  to 
adopt  whatever  Constitution  they  please,  with  the  single  restriction  to  be 
republican,  in  order  to  their  admission  into  the  Union.  If  a  party  can 
not  safely  take  this  broad  and  solid  position,  and  successfully  maintain  it, 
what  other  can  it  take  and  maintain?"  (I  will  here  suggest  that  I  re 
member  very  well  that  this  portion  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  Oregon  speech  was 
regarded  at  the  time  as  intended  to  recommend  to  the  Democratic  party  to 
embody  the  non-intervention  principle  in  its  presidential  platform,  which 
was  accordingly  done.)  But  he  continued  :  "  If  it  (a  party)  can  not  main 
tain  itself  by  an  appeal  to  the  great  principles  of  justice,  the  Constitution, 
and  self-government,  to  what  other,  sufficiently  strong  to  uphold  them, 
can  they  appeal  ?  I  greatly  mistake  the  character  of  the  people  of  this 
Union  if  such  an  appeal  would  not  prove  successful,  if  either  party  should 
have  the  magnanimity  to  step  forward  and  boldly  take  it.  It  would,  in 
my  opinion,  be  received  with  shouts  of  approbation  by  the  patriotic  and 
intelligent  in  every  quarter.  There  is  a  deep  feeling  pervading  the  coun 
try  that  the  Union  and  our  political  institutions  are  in  danger,  which  such 
a  course  would  dispel. " 

He  said  further, 

"There  is  a  very  striking  difference  between  the  position  which  the 
slaveholding  and  the  non-slaveholding  states  stand  in  reference  to  the 
subject  under  consideration.  The  former  desire  no  action  of  the  govern 
ment  ;  demand  no  law  to  give,  them  any  advantage  in  the  territory  about  to  be 
established ;  are  willing  to  leave  it,  and  other  territories  belonging  to  the 
United  States,  open  to  all  their  citizens  so  long  as  they  continue  to  be 


THE  NASHVILLE   CONVENTION.  145 

action  of  that  body,  and  upon  some  interesting  occurren 
ces  connected  therewith.  Though  a  considerable  num 
ber  of  individuals  attended  this  Convention  as  delegates 
from  various  Southern  States,  of  no  little  distinction  and 
influence  in  the  communities  to  which  they  belonged, 
and  though  there  were  a  few  of  these  who  possessed  re 
markable  intellectual  power  and  varied  attainments,  yet 
it  is  equally  true  that  there  were  others  of  a  very  reck 
less  and  disorganizing  spirit,  and  not  at  all  fitted,  in  any 
respect,  to  perform  the  difficult  and  somewhat  anomalous 
duties  which  had  been  assigned  them.  I  am  not  will 
ing,  at  this  moment,  to  say  any  thing  calculated  to  cast 
discredit  upon  persons  whose  political  calculations  and 
whose  individual  aspirations  have  suffered  such  a  cruel 
blight  by  the  operation  of  recent  events.  But  justice  to 
a  very  uncommon  and  meritorious  personage  who  chanced 
to  be  selected  to  preside  over  that  body,  Judge  William 
L.  Sharkey,  of  Mississippi,  whose  wise  and  statesmanlike 
conduct  as  Provisional  Governor  of  Mississippi  has  at 
tracted  to  him  so  much  of  public  respect  and  sympathy 
of  late,  and  stamped  his  name  upon  the  page  of  history 

territories,  and  when  they  cease  to  be  so,  to  leave  it  to  their  inhabitants 
to  form  such  governments  as  may  suit  them,  without  restriction  or  condi 
tion,  except  that  inferred  by  the  Constitution,  as  a  prerequisite  for  enter 
ing  the  Union.  In  short,  they  are  willing  to  leave  the  whole  subject 
where  the  Constitution  and  the  great  and  fundamental  principles  of  self- 
government  place  it." 

Again  he  said,  in  the  celebrated  Southern  Address,  "What  we  propose 
in  this  connection  is  to  make  a  few  remarks-on  what  the  North  alleges 
erroneously  to  be  the  issue  between  us  and  them.  So  far  from  maintain 
ing  the  doctrine  which  the  issue  implies,  we  hold  that  the  Federal  gov 
ernment  has  no  ri/jht  to  extend  or  restrict  slavery,  no  more  than  to  extin 
guish  or  abolish  it." 

G 


146  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

in  characters  of  enduring  honor,  demands  of  me  to  de 
clare  that,  but  for  his  courageous  and  discreet  conduct  as 
president  of  the  Convention  in  1850,  great  and  wide 
spread  mischief  would  inevitably  have  ensued  from  the 
action  of  that  body.  The  telegraphic  reports  which  were 
received  in  Washington  during  the  pendency  of  the 
measures  of  compromise,  notifying  the  friends  of  the 
Union  in  Congress  of  the  happy  effects  resulting  from 
the  decided  action,  and  sage  and  healing  counsels  of 
Judge  Sharkey,  supplied  seasonable  and  essential  aid  to 
those  who  were  struggling  to  consummate  the  work  of 
national  pacification  then  in  active  progress;  and  it  is 
highly  gratifying  now  both  to  remember  and  to  record 
that  President  Fillmore  was  so  impressed  with  the  great 
value  of  the  service  which  Judge  Sharkey  had  rendered 
to  the  Union  cause  while  presiding  over  the  deliberations 
of  the  Nashville  Convention,  and  was  so  well  persuaded 
of  his  general  merits  and  qualifications,  that  he  did  not 
hesitate,  on  this  gentleman's  arrival  in  "Washington  a  few 
days  subsequent  to  the  adjournment  of  that  body,  to  ten 
der  to  him  the  office  of  Secretary  of  War,  which  station 
Judge  Sharkey  modestly,  but  with  a  grateful  sense  of  the 
honor  intended  to  be  conferred  upon  him,  thought  prop 
er  to  decline.  This  worthy  personage  has  been  recently 
elected  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  where  I  venture  to  pre 
dict,  upon  a  more  than  thirty  years'  acquaintance  with 
him,  his  career  will  be  as  brilliant  and  useful  as  his  repu 
tation  in  private  life  is  stainless  and  exemplary. 

I  should  fail  to  do  justice  to  the  great  mass  of  Amer 
ican  population   at  this  critical  conjuncture  did  I  not 


CITY  OF  NEW  YORK.  147 

mention  the  fact  that  large  public  meetings  were  held  in 
every  part  of  the  republic,  at  which  eloquent  speeches 
were  made  and  patriotic  resolutions  adopted,  of  a  nature 
to  supply  the  most  important  assistance  to  those  who 
were  struggling  to  keep  the  ship  of  state  steady  and  erect 
amid  the  conflicting  winds  then  raging.  In  the  great 
commercial  emporium  of  the  republic,  New  York,  move 
ments  occurred  during  the  summer  of  1850  which  a 
grateful  country  can  never  cease  to  bear  in  kind  and  re 
spectful  remembrance.  A  grand  popular  assemblage 
was  held,  where  a  large  proportion  of  the  intelligence 
and  wealth  of  the  city  were  represented ;  resolutions  ap 
proving  in  the  most  enthusiastic  terms  the  efforts  of  those 
in  Congress  engaged  in  the  work  of  national  settlement 
were  adopted,  and  a  committee  of  safety,  numbering  one 
hundred  persons,  and  composed  of  some  of  the  most  en 
lightened  and  influential  men  on  the  continent,  was  ap 
pointed,  which  labored  afterward  incessantly,  in  every 
practicable  mode,  to  aid  in  the  preservation  of  a  Union 
which  was  felt  to  be  far  too  precious  to  be  left  exposed 
to  the  dangers  then  besetting  it  on  all  sides,  and  which  it 
was  evident  could  be  only  rescued  from  ruin  by  the  com 
bined  efforts  of  all  who  truly  loved  it,  and  who  were  yet 
willing  to  struggle  for  its  preservation. 


148  SCYLLA  ANL>  CHAliYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Omnibus  Bill  under  Consideration. — Strenuous  Opposition  of  General 
Taylor's  Administration  to  its  Adoption. — Last  Appearance  of  Presi 
dent  Taylor  in  Public  on  the  4th  of  July,  1850,  at  Monument  Square, 
in  Washington  City,  and  touching  Scene  which  occurred  there. — Gen 
eral  Taylor's  Decease  a  few  Days  thereafter. — Mr.  Webster's  eloquent 
Funeral  Notice  of  him. — Mr.  Fillmore's  Inauguration  as  President,  and 
efficient  Support  of  the  Compromise  Measures. — Official  Order  found 
on  General  Taylor's  Table  after  his  Decease,  ordering  the  forcible  Ex- 
pulsion  from  New  Mexico  by  the  Military  of  Texan  Settlers. — Mr. 
Clay's  heroic  Remonstrance  against  this  coercive  Policy,  which  he  re 
garded  as  needlessly  endangering  the  Union. — Fierce  Opposition  to  the 
Compromise  Measures  on  the  Part  both  of  Extremists  of  the  North  and 
Extremists  of  the  South. — Terrible  Struggle  over  the  Omnibus  Bill  in 
the  Senate,  which  is  finally  broken  into  Fragments  mainly  by  the  In 
discretion  of  its  own  Friends,  but  the  integral  Portions  of  which  finally 
pass  both  Houses. — The  Country  quieted  under  the  Influence  of  this 
Measure. — Sage  and  firm  Conduct  of  President  Fillmore  in  causing  the 
Compromise  Enactments  to  be  every  where  faithfully  executed. — Cel 
ebrated  Rescue  Case  in  Massachusetts,  and  interesting  Proceedings  in 
Congress  in  Connection  therewith. 

THE  compromise  measures,  in  the  form  of  an  Omnibus 
Bill,  as  it  was  called  at  the  time,  were  under  discussion 
in  the  national  Senate,  and  various  questions  connected 
with  the  proposed  "plan  of  adjustment "  as  Mr.  Dallas,  in 
a  letter  to  myself,  written  about  this  period  and  published 
in  the  newspapers,  more  aptly  entitled  them,  were  calling 
forth  much  acrimonious  discussion  in  both  wings  of  the 
Capitol,  when  General  Taylor  very  suddenly  died,  early 
in  the  month  of  July,  1850.  The  last  time  I  saw  this  fine 


GENERAL  TAYLOR'S  LAST  APPEARANCE  IN  PUBLIC.   149 

specimen  of  the  honest,  blunt,  strong-minded,  resolute, 
but,  it  must  be  confessed,  somewhat  self-willed  and  ob 
stinate  soldier  of  the  backwoods,  was  on  the  Fourth  of 
July,  at  what  is  known  as  the  Washington  Monument, 
where  I  had  the  honor  of  delivering,  by  request  of  the 
patriotic  association  formed  for  the  purpose  of  erecting 
the  same,  the  customary  anniversary  oration.  President 
Taylor  and  his  cabinet  had  all  come  forth  on  this  occa 
sion,  far  more,  I  am  sure,  to  render  deserved  homage  to 
the  memory  of  the  august  Father  of  his  Country  than  to 
listen  to  the  feeble  and  unworthy  effusion  to  which  they 
were  about  to  give  respectful  audience.  Never  had  I 
seen  him  look  more  robust  and  healthful  than  while  seat 
ed  under  the  canopy  which  sheltered  the  speaker  and  the 
assembled  concourse  from  the  burning  rays  of  an  almost 
vertical  sun.  After  the  address  had  been  concluded,  he 
kindly  beckoned  me  to  approach  him,  cordially  offered 
me  his  hand,  and  tendered  me  his  thanks  for  what  I  am 
painfully  sensible  very  little  merited  such  a  compliment 
ary  notice ;  though  I  am  gratified  to  know  that  those  who 
may  now  choose  to  look  over  that  same  speech  will  at 
least  find  it  replete  with  the  most  fervent  Union  senti 
ments,  and  the  most  enthusiastic  wishes  for  our  country's 
happiness.  I  think  that  the  veteran  President  added, 
'•'•Why  will  you  not  always  speak  in  this  way?"  a  kind  and 
patriotic  implication  of  rebuke,  which  I  will  not  undertake 
now  to  say  was  altogether  unreasonable,  and  from  which 
I  hope  I  did  not  fail  subsequently,  in  some  degree,  to  prof 
it.  In  a  day  or  two  more  the  hero  of  so  many  battles  had 
gone  to  his  long  home,  and  a  grand  public  funeral  was 
awarded  him.  The  following  appropriate  and  pathetic 


150  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

speech  was  delivered  by  Mr.  Webster  in  the  Senate,  on 
the  occasion  of  presenting  resolutions  in  notice  of  his 
demise : 

"  Mr.  Secretary,  at  a  time  when  the  great  mass  of  our 
fellow-citizens  are  in  the  enjoyment  of  an  unusual  meas 
ure  of  health  and  prosperity  throughout  the  whole  coun 
try,  it  has  pleased  Divine  Providence  to  visit  the  two 
houses  of  Congress,  and  especially  this  House,  with  re 
peated  occasions  for  mourning  and  lamentation.  Since 
the  commencement  of  the  session,  we  have  followed  two 
of  our  own  members  to  their  last  home ;  and  we  are  now 
called  upon,  in  conjunction  with  the  other  branch  of  the 
Legislature,  and  in  full  sympathy  with  that  deep  tone  of 
affliction  which  I  am  sure  is  felt  throughout  the  country, 
to  take  part  in  the  due  solemnities  of  the  funeral  of  the 
late  President  of  the  United  States. 

11  Truly,  sir,  was  it  said,  in  the  communication  read  to 
us,  that  a  'great  man  has  fallen  among  us.'  The  late 
President  of  the  United  States,  originally  a  soldier  by 
profession,  having  gone  through  a  long  and  splendid  ca 
reer  of  military  service,  had,  at  the  close  of  the  late  war 
with  Mexico,  become  so  much  endeared  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  and  had  inspired  them  with  so  high  a 
degree  of  regard  and  confidence,  that,  without  solicitation 
eft  application,  without  pursuing  any  devious  paths  of 
policy,  or  turning  a  hair's  breadth  to  the  right  or  left 
from  the  path  of  duty,  a  great,  and  powerful,  and  gener 
ous  people  saw  fit,  by  popular  vote  and  voice,  to  confer 
upon  him  the  highest  civil  authority  in  the  nation.  We 
can  not  forget  that,  as  in  other  instances  so  in  this,  the 
public  feeling  was  won  and  carried  away,  in  some  de- 


FUNERAL  SPEECH  IN  HONOR  OF  GEN.  TAYLOR.  151 

gree,  by  the  eclat  of  military  renown.  So  it  has  been 
always,  and  so  it  always  will  be,  because  high  respect  for 
noble  deeds  in  arms  has  been  and  always  will  be  out 
poured  from  the  hearts  of  the  members  of  a  popular  gov 
ernment. 

"But  it  will  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
late  President  of  the  United  States  owed  his  advance 
ment  to  high  civil  trust,  or  his  great  acceptableness  with 
the  people,  to  military  talent  or  ability  alone.  I  believe, 
sir,  that,  associated  with  the  highest  admiration  for  those 
qualities  possessed  by  him,  there  was  spread  throughout 
the  community  a  high  degree  of  confidence  and  faith  in 
his  integrity  and  honor,  and  uprightness  as  a  man.  1 
believe  he  was  especially  regarded  as  both  a  firm  and  a 
mild  man  in  the  exercise  of  authority ;  and  I  have  ob 
served  more  than  once,  in  this  and  in  other  popular  gov 
ernments,  that  the  prevalent  motive  with  the  masses  of 
mankind  for  conferring  high  power  on  individuals  is  a 
confidence  in  their  mildness,  their  paternal,  protecting, 
prudent,  and  safe  character.  The  people  naturally  feel 
safe  where  they  feel  themselves  to  be  under  the  control 
and  protection  of  sober  counsel,  of  impartial  minds,  and 
a  general  paternal  superintendence. 

"  I  suppose,  sir,  that  no  case  ever  happened  in  the  very 
best  days  of  the  Eoman  republic  when  a  man  found  him 
self  clothed  with  the  highest  authority  in  the  state  under 
circumstances  more  repelling  all  suspicion  of  personal 
application,  of  pursuing  any  crooked  path  in  politics,  or 
of  having  been  actuated  by  sinister  views  and  purposes, 
than  in  the  case  of  the  worthy,  and  eminent,  and  distin 
guished,  and  good  man  whose  death  we  now  deplore. 


152  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

u  He  has  left  to  the  people  of  his  country  a  legacy  in 
this.  He  has  left  them  a  bright  example,  which  address 
es  itself  with  peculiar  force  to  the  young  and  rising  gen 
eration  ;  for  it  tells  them  that  there  is  a  path  to  the  high 
est  degree  of  renown  straight  onward,  steady,  without 
change  or  deviation. 

"  Mr.  Secretary,  my  friend  from  Louisiana*  has  detailed 
shortly  the  events  in  the  military  career  of  General  Tay 
lor.  His  service  through  his  life  was  mostly  on  the 
frontier,  and  always  a  hard  service,  often  in  combat  with 
the  tribes  of  Indians  along  the  frontier  for  so  many  thou 
sands  of  miles.  It  has  been  justly  remarked  by  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  men  whose  voice  was  ever  heard  in 
these  housesf  that  it  is  not  in  Indian  wars  that  heroes 
are  celebrated-,  but  that  it  is  there  that  they  are  formed. 
The  hard  service,  the  stern  discipline  devolving  upon  all 
those  who  have  a  great  extent  of  frontier  to  defend,  often 
with  irregular  troops,  being  called  on  suddenly  to  enter 
into  contests  with  savages,  to  study  the  habits  of  savage 
life  and  savage  war,  in  order  to  foresee  and  overcome 
their  stratagems,  all  these  things  tend  to  make  hardy 
military  character. 

"For  a  very  short  time,  sir,  I  had  a  connection  with 
the  executive  government  of  this  country,  and  at  that 
time  very  perilous  and  embarrassing  circumstances  ex 
isted  between  the  United  States  and  the  Indians  on  the 
borders,  and  war  was  actually  carried  on  between  the 
United  States  and  the  Florida  tribes.  I  very  well  re 
member  that  those  who  took  counsel  together  on  that 
occasion  officially,  and  who  were  desirous  of  placing  the 

*  Mr.  Downs.  f  Fisher  Ames. 


FUNERAL  SPEECH  IN  HONOR  OF  GEN.  TAYLOR.   153 

military  command  in  the  safest  hands,  came  to  the  con 
clusion  that  there  was  no  man  in  the  service  more  fully 
uniting  the  qualities  of  military  ability  and  great  person 
al  prudence  than  Zachary  Taylor,  and  he  was  appointed 
to  the  command. 

"  Unfortunately,  his  career  at  the  head  of  this  govern 
ment  was  short.  For  my  part,  in  all  that  I  have  seen  of 
him,  I  have  found  much  to  respect  and  nothing  to  con 
demn.  The  circumstances  under  which  he  conducted 
the  government  for  the  short  time  he  was  at  the  head  of 
it  have  been  such  as  perhaps  not  to  give  him  a  very  fa 
vorable  opportunity  of  developing  his  principles  and  his 
policy,  and  carrying  them  out ;  but  I  believe  he  has  left 
on  the  minds  of  the  country  a  strong  impression,  first,  of 
his  absolute  honesty  and  integrity  of  character ;  next,  of 
his  sound,  practical  good  sense ;  and,  lastly,  of  the  mild 
ness  and  friendliness  of  his  temper  toward  all  his  coun 
trymen. 

"But  he  is  gone.  He  is  ours  no  more,  except  in  the 
force  of  his  example.  Sir,  I  heard  with  infinite  delight 
the  sentiments  expressed  by  my  honorable  friend  from 
Louisiana  who  has  just  resumed  his  seat,  when  he  earn 
estly  prayed  that  this  event  might  be  used  to  soften  the 
animosities,  to  allay  party  criminations  and  recrimina 
tions,  and  to  restore  fellowship  and  good  feeling  among 
the  various  sections  of  the  Union.  Mr.  Secretary,  great 
as  is  our  loss  to-day,  if  these  inestimable  and  inapprecia 
ble  blessings  shall  have  been  secured  to  us  even  by  the 
death  of  Zachary  Taylor,  they  have  not  been  purchased 
at  too  high  a  price  ;  and  if  his  spirit,  from  the  regions  to 
which  he  has  ascended,  could  see  these  results  flowing 


154  SCYLLA  AND   CIIARYBDIS. 

from  his  unexpected  and  untimely  end,  if  he  could  see 
that  he  had  entwined  a  soldier's  laurel  around  a  martyr's 
crown,  he  would  say  exultingly,  '  Happy  am  I  that,  by 
my  death,  I  have  done  more  for  that  country  which  I 
loved  and  served,  than  I  did  or  could  do  by  all  the  devo 
tion  and  all  the  efforts  that  I  could  make  in  her  behalf 
during  the  short  space  of  my  earthly  existence.' 

"Mr.  Secretary,  great  as  this  calamity  is,  we  mourn 
not  as  those  without  hope.  "We  have  seen  one  eminent 
man,  and  another  eminent  man,  and  at  last  a  man  in  the 
most  eminent  station,  fall  away  from  the  midst  of  us. 
But  I  doubt  not  there  is  a  Power  above  us  exercising 
over  us  that  parental  care  that  has  guarded  our  progress 
for  so  many  years.  I  have  confidence  still  that  the  place 
of  the  departed  will  be  supplied ;  that  the  kind,  beneficent 
favor  of  Almighty  God  will  still  be  with  us,  and  that  we 
shall  be  borne  along,  and  borne  upward  and  upward,  on 
the  wings  of  his  sustaining  providence.  May  God  grant 
that,  in  the  time  that  is  before  us,  there  may  not  be  want 
ing  to  us  as  wise  men,  as  good  men  for  our  counselors, 
as  he  whose  funeral  obsequies  we  now  propose  to  cele 
brate!" 

It  has  been  already  stated  that  while  General  Taylor 
lived  he  had  not  seen  the  necessity  of  those  measures  of 
compromise  which  men  of  not  less  patriotism  than  him 
self,  and  of  far  more  civic  experience,  regarded  as  essen 
tial  to  the  restoration  of  the  public  repose.  I  rejoice  to 
recollect,  though,  that  I  never  heard  any  one  call  his 
motives  in  question  in  adhering  to  his  non-action  policy,  as 
it  was  at  the  time,  not  very  aptly,  as  I  must  think,  enti 
tled;  though  I  suppose  no  person  will  deny  that  this  ex- 


MR.  CLAY  AND  GENERAL  TAYLOR.       155 

cellent  and  patriotic  personage  had  been  induced  to  re 
gard  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Clay  and  those  co-operating  with 
him,  in  urging  the  early  settlement  of  all  the  outstand 
ing  questions  of  sectional  differences  by  congressional  leg 
islation,  with  considerable  disfavor,  if  not,  indeed,  with 
stronger  feelings.  It  is  certain  that  he  was  sometimes 
heard  to  complain  that  the  members  of  Congress  referred 
to  were  ungraciously  embarrassing  his  administration; 
and  in  a  newspaper  published  in  Washington  City,  rec 
ognized  at  the  time  as  the  organ  of  the  government,  daily 
diatribes  made  their  appearance  directed  at  the  compro 
mise  measures,  and  even  severely  arraigning  Mr.  Clay  by 
name.  Nor  was  this  gentleman  at  all  times  patient  un 
der  such  illiberal  assaults,  and  on  at  least  one  occasion, 
in  the  morning  hour,  was  his  trumpet-toned  voice  raised 
in  terrible  and  withering  rebuke  of  the  political  TJier- 
sites  who  was,  as  he  charged,  factiously  essaying  to  keep 
alive  sectional  excitement  at  the  hazard  of  the  public 
peace  and  of  the  nation's  safety.  It  is  perhaps  not  very 
surprising  that  General  Ta}dor,  with  his  exclusive  mili 
tary  notions,  should  have  resolved  to  drive  off  by  force 
of  arms  the  Texan  citizens  who  were  then  reputed  to  be 
upon  the  disputed  territory,  claimed  alike  by  Texas,  as  a 
part  of  her  own  domain,  and  by  the  United  States,  as  a 
portion  of  the  territory  recently  acquired  from  the  Repub 
lic  of  Mexico.  Mr.  Webster,  when  Secretary  of  State,  a 
month  or  two  subsequent  to  General  Taylor's  decease,  in 
a  speech  or  letter,  I  do  not  now  remember  which,  stated 
the  fact  that  upon  the  President's  official  table,  or  in  the 
Department  of  War,  an  official  order  was  found,  after  Mr. 
Fillmore's  induction  into  the  presidency,  directing  the 


156  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

United  States  military  commander  then  in  charge  of  New 
Mexico  to  lose  not  a  moments  time  in  expelling  the  alleged 
Texan  intruders  beyond  what  was  deemed  by  the  government 
to  be  the  true  boundary  line  of  New  Mexico.  I  was  myself 
in  the  Senate  one  morning  when  Mr.  Seward,  of  New 
York,  gave  distinct  and  emphatic  premonition  of  what 
General  Taylor  had  then  resolved  to  do  upon  this  sub 
ject,  and  well  remember  the  mingled  surprise  and  indig 
nation  which  Mr.  Clay  displayed  on  that  occasion,  and 
the  frank  and  solemn  warning  he  uttered  in  reference  to 
the  execution  of  a  measure  which  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
declare  must,  if  essayed,  inevitably  produce  civil  war,  if, 
indeed,  it  would  not  justify  it.  He  declared  that  nothing 
could  be,  in  his  judgment,  more  unwise  or  more  pregnant 
with  mischief  than  an  attempt  to  settle  by  the  arbitra 
ment  of  the  sword  the  disputed  question  of  territorial 
boundary,  and  avowed  his  apprehension  that,  should  the 
interposition  of  military  force  occur  at  a  time  when  so 
many  millions  were  confidently  expecting  the  early  adop 
tion  of  measures  of  pacification  by  Congress,  the  first 
drop  of  the  blood  of  Texan  citizens  shed  by  the  regular 
soldiers  of  the  government  would  wake  up  a  general  and 
fearful  conflagration,  which  might  in  the  issue  consume 
all  that  existed  of  American  liberty. 

I  shall  not  say  more  at  present  in  regard  to  the  meas 
ures  of  compromise  proposed,  than  that  there  was  not 
one  of  them  the  constitutionality  of  which  could  be  reason 
ably  disputed;  nor  do  I  suppose  that  any  enlightened 
man  can  now  be  found  in  the  republic,  whose  mind  is 
free  from  the  delusion  of  sectional  prejudice,  who  would 
undertake  to  deny  the  full  power  of  Congress  to  leg- 


COMPKOMISE   MEASURES.  157 

islate  precisely  in  the  manner  contemplated  by  these 
same  enactments.  Sectional  agitators,  though,  on  both 
sides  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  were  for  some  time 
heard  to  complain  that  Congress  had  seriously  transcend 
ed  the  limits  of  its  power,  and  that  its  action  was  there 
fore  not  entitled  to  popular  respect.  Extremists  in  the 
South  freely  denounced  the  Texas  Boundary  Bill  as  a 
fraud,  as  a  bribe  administered  to  a  sovereign  state,  in  or 
der  to  induce  her  to  sacrifice  the  general  interests  of  the 
South ;  nor  would  they  listen  with  patience  to  the  pro 
phetic  language  which  was  constantly  thundered  in  their 
ears,  that  this  very  measure  would  enable  Texas,  by 
means  of  the  large  pecuniary  sum  which  was  presently 
to  be  paid  her  in  exchange  for  territory  the  title  to  which 
was  admitted  to  be  doubtful,  to  pay  off  the  large  public 
debt  contracted  during  her  revolutionary  struggle,  thus 
relieving  her  people  from  grinding  taxation  ;  supply  her, 
in  addition,  with  ample  means  for  establishing  a  liberal  sys 
tem  of  education  within  her  borders,  and  for  overspread 
ing  her  surface  with  railways,  and  thus  attracting  within 
her  limits  myriads  of  immigrants  from  other  regions,  who 
would,  in  a  few  years,  convert  her  into  the  empire  slave 
state  of  the  Southwest,  destined,  as  such,  to  become  an  im 
pregnable  barrier  to  the  encroachments  of  abolition  in 
that  direction.  These  dissatisfied  factionists  murmured 
over  the  congressional  enactment  which  uprooted  slave 
traffic  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  absurdly  insisted 
that  by  it  slavery  was  virtually  abolished  therein ;  when 
the  truth  was,  that  Congress  had  only  re-enacted  the  old 
law  of  Maryland  on  this  subject  which  had  been  on  the 
statute-book  of  the  district  for  more  than  a  half  century, 


158  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

and  had  not,  in  fact,  provided  for  the  liberation  of  a  sin 
gle  slave  from  bondage.  So  these  persons  also  denounced 
the  new  Fugitive  Slave  Law  as  utterly  inefficient,  and 
raised  a  prodigious  clamor  over  the  admission  of  Califor 
nia,  declaring  such  admission  unconstitutional,  though 
they  were  bound  to  know  that  iheform  of  admission  was 
just  the  same  as  had  been  adopted  some  dozen  times  be 
fore.  Even  the  territorial  bills  were  not  satisfactory  to 
these  blinded  and  overheated  zealots,  who  alleged  that 
special  congressional  protection  to  slavery  in  the  territo 
ries  should  Have  been  accorded. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  extremists  from  the  North  also 
objected,  and  with  some  little  show  of  plausibility,  I  con 
fess,  to  the  paying  to  Texas  from  the  public  treasury  for 
lands  the  value  of  which  they  seriously  doubted,  and  the 
title  to  which  they  alleged  was  really  in  the  general  gov 
ernment  already.  They  found  serious  fault  with  the  ter 
ritorial  bills,  because  they  did  not  contain  the  Wilmot 
Proviso,  though  Mr.  Webster  and  others  had  plainly 
shown,  as  has  been  seen,  that  slavery  was  already  ex 
cluded  both  by  the  Mexican  laws  existing  there  and  the 
irresistible  decree  of  Nature.  They  insisted  that  slavery 
should  have  been  done  away  altogether  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  were  extremely  indignant  that  the  new 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  so  constructed  as  to  place  its  due 
enforcement  exclusively  in  the  power  of  the  general  gov 
ernment,  without  looking  thereafter  to  the  free  states 
themselves  for  such  legislation  on  this  subject  as  would 
be  likely  to  prove  effective. 

All  intelligent  men  know  that  the  Omnibus  Bill,  while 
on  its  passage  through  the  Senate,  was  broken  into  sep- 


PASSAGE   OF  THE   COMPEOMISE   MEASURES.         159 

arate  enactments  mainly  by  the  gross  indiscretion  of 
some  of  its  own  professed  friends,  and  that  finally  the 
several  fragments  into  which  it  had  been  dissolved  all 
passed  the  two  houses  of  Congress,  and  became  part  of 
the  supreme  law  of  the  land. 

Some  members  of  Congress,  both  from  the  North  and 
the  South,  still  contended  that  there  was  nothing  more 
sacred  in  the  compromise  measures  thus  adopted  than  in 
ordinary  legislative  enactments,  urging  that  they  were 
all  subject,  like  other  bills  which  passed  Congress,  to  be 
amended  or  repealed  at  pleasure  by  succeeding  Congress 
es.  "With  a  view  to  counteracting  this  view  of  the  mat 
ter,  upon  the  advice  of  various  judicious  friends  I  intro 
duced  resolutions  at  the  next  succeeding  session  of  Con- 
gross  which  asserted  the  various  acts  of  Congress  speci 
fied,  notwithstanding  they  had  been  disjoined  from  each 
other  in  the  manner  stated,  still  to  constitute,  in  fact,  one 
scheme  of  compromise  or  adjustment,  for  the  clue  enforce 
ment  of  which  the  public  faith  was  solemnly  pledged, 
and  declared  the  legislation  which  had  just  taken  place 
to  be  a  final  settlement,  in  principle  and  substance,  of  all  the 
controverted  questions  of  slavery.  Though  this  resolu 
tion  was  not  so  fortunate  as  to  receive  the  sanction  of  the 
two  houses  of  Congress,  yet  it  is  not  a  little  gratifying  to 
me  now  to  recollect  that  the  great  principle  of  finality 
asserted  therein  was  afterward  unequivocally  incorpora 
ted  both  in  the  Whig  and  Democratic  presidential  plat 
forms  of  1852. 

It  is  due  to  Mr.  Fillmore  to  say,  that  but  for  his  effi 
cient  co-operation  in  securing  the  passage  of  the  various 
compromise  enactments,  it  is  not  probable  that  they  would 


160  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

have  become  laws;  and  his  wise  and  patriotic  conduct 
afterward,  in  faithfully  enforcing  these  enactments  in  both 
sections  of  the  Union,  constitutes,  in  my  judgment,  one 
of  the  brightest  pages  in  American  annals.  Never  did 
this  conscientious  and  upright  President  knowingly  ap 
point  any  man  to  office  who  was  not  already  pledged  to 
stand  by  and  maintain  the  compromise  measures  in  their 
entirety,  knowing  as  he  did  that  if  the  official  patronage 
of  which  he  had  control  was  bestowed  to  any  consider 
able  extent  upon  sectional  factionists,  upon  the  heated 
agitators  of  questions  which  the  plan  of  compromise  had 
adjusted,  there  was  no  probability  that  the  excitement 
which  had  been  just  allayed  would  fail  to  be  afterward 
renewed.  This  was  the  true  secret  of  the  almost  un 
broken  quietude  which  the  republic  so  happily  enjoyed 
while  Mr.  Fillmore  held  the  position  of  president ;  and  it 
was  the  notorious  and  unpardonable  adoption  of  an  op 
posite  principle  by  Mr.  Pierce  after  he  came  into  office — 
the  continual  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  by  him  or 
under  his  direction  in  presidential  messages  and  other 
wise — the  illicit  arts  undeniably  practiced  by  certain  per 
sons  in  his  employment  for  the  raising  of  new  slavery 
issues — the  cruel  and  shameless  persecution  which  they 
brought  to  bear  upon  Union  men  in. the  South  who 
chanced  to  be  in  Federal  employment  at  the  time,  either 
under  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Fillmore  or  otherwise,  and 
the  strange  and  startling  discrimination  which  was  prac 
ticed  in  the  North  in  connection  with  the  distribution  of 
official  patronage  in  favor  of  what  was  known  at  the  time 
as  Free-soil  Democrats,  that  brought  into  existence  once 
more  those  sectional  factions  which  the  operation  of  the 


161 

compromise  had  suppressed,  and  which,  in  the  sequel,  ut 
terly  broke  down  the  popularity  of  Mr.  Pierce's  adminis 
tration,  fatally  undermined  the  strength  of  the  Democratic 
party  in  the  free  states,  and  well-nigh  brought  about  the 
election  of  a  Eepublican  president  in  1856.  Mr.  Pierce 
will  be  held  by  all  sound- thinking  men  as  the  more  justly 
deserving  reprehension  in  regard  to  these  matters  by  rea 
son  of  the  fact  that  he  had  been  elected  upon  an  unequiv- 
ocal  finality  platform,  and  was  pledged  in  every  way  to 
administer  the  government  upon  purely  national  princi 
ples.  How  he  came  to  pursue  such  a  course  will  be,  to 
some  extent,  hereafter  explained,  and  the  consequences  of 
such  unwise  conduct  on  his  part  will  be  perhaps  made 
somewhat  more  apparent.  I  will  conclude  this  chapter 
by  the  relation  of  an  anecdote,  which  will  bring  very 
strikingly  to  view  the  spirit  -uniformly  displayed  by 
President  Fillmore  and  his  cabinet  in  regard  to  giving 
full  effect  to  the  compromise  measures. 

About  the  middle  of  the  month  of  February,  1851,  I 
was  one  morning  walking  along  the  Pennsylvania  Ave 
nue,  in  Washington  City,  when,  beholding  the  arrival  of 
the  railway  cars  from  the  East,  I  turned  in  at  the  depot 
and  purchased  a  New  York  Herald  of  that  date.  On 
glancing  over  its  columns,  I  saw,  greatly  to  my  concern 
and  alarm,  a  graphic  and  minute  account  of  the  celebrated 
rescue  scene  which  had  just  occurred  at  Boston,  and  of  the 
successful  contravention  of  the  new  Fugitive  Slave  Act 
by  mob  violence.  Though  I  had  never  myself  participated 
in  the  general  feeling  of  my  Southern  countrymen  that  it 
was  very  essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  slavehold- 
ing  system  that  all  negroes  who  chanced  to  escape  from 


162  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

their  owners  should  be  apprehended  and  returned  to  serv 
ice,  and  had  never  seen  the  day  when  I  would  have  made 
the  least  exertion  to  recapture  a  slave  of  my  own,  and,  in 
deed,  would  rather  at  any  time  have  been  inclined  to  re 
gard  the  fact  of  his  having  actually  accomplished  his  es 
cape  as  a  proof  that  he  was  more  or  less  fitted  to  enjoy 
freedom,  yet  I  was  well  satisfied  that  in  the  then  existing 
condition  of  the  public  mind  of  the  South,  the  occurrence 
which  was  thus  reported  to  have  taken  place,  when  duly 
made  known  to  our  overheated  and  too  mercurial  South 
ern  countrymen,  would  at  once  call  forth  intense  and 
widely-extended  excitement,  and  tend  greatly  to  enfee 
ble  the  compromise  measures  in  the  slaveholding  states, 
where  a  general  spirit  of  acquiescence  was  beginning  to 
display  itself. 

I  was  quite  confident,  also,  that  the  intelligence  which 
had  just  reached  Washington  would  that  very  day  pro 
voke  renewed  controversial  acrimony  in  the  two  houses 
of  Congress,  the  diffusion  of  which  through  the  news 
papers  might  be  productive  of  much  unkind  feeling  in 
both  sections  of  the  Union,  which  all  true  patriots  could 
not  fail  to  deplore.  With  these  views  I  proceeded  at 
once  to  the  room  of  Mr.  Clay  at  the  National  Hotel, 
where  I  found  the  venerable  patriarch  surrounded  by  a 
crowd  of  youthful  visitants,  several  of  whom  I  under 
stood  to  be  his  own  grandchildren.  He  received  me 
with  his  usual  affability.  Apologizing  to  him  for  dis 
turbing  the  pleasant  scene  which  I  saw  in  progress,  I  ask 
ed  leave  to  lay  before  him  the  news  which  I  had  brought. 
He  requested  me  to  read  aloud  the  article  in  the  Herald, 
which  I  did ;  on  concluding  which,  he  said,  with  an  em- 


NOBLE   CONDUCT   OF  MR.  FILLMORE.  163 

phasis  which  I  can  never  forget,  "My  dear  friend,  you 
are  right ;  this  is  indeed  alarming  intelligence,  and  noth 
ing,  in  my  judgment,  can  prevent  the  arising  of  great  mis 
chief  but  the  immediate  adoption  by  the  government  of 
the  most  energetic  measures  for  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws.  Let  me  ask  you  to  hasten  to  the  White  House, 
see  President  Fillmore  as  soon  as  you  can,  lay  these  ex 
traordinary  facts  before  him,  and  make  known  to  him 
that  I  will  myself  be  also  in  his  presence  in  a  few  mo 
ments,  only  being  detained  here  so  long  as  is  necessary 
to  have  my  carriage  brought  to  the  door."  I  acted 
promptly  as  he  had  advised,  went  rapidly  to  the  presi 
dential  mansion,  and  was  in  a  few  minutes  admitted  to 
an  interview  with  Mr.  Fillmore.  I  found  him,  as  usual, 
calm  and  composed,  but  yet  did  his  face  indicate  a  little 
more  than  ordinary  solemnity  and  earnestness.  I  lost  no 
time  in  announcing  the  object  of  my  errand.  He  told 
me  that  he  had  already  received  the  Boston  news,  and 
had  called  a  cabinet  meeting  to  consider  of  it,  which  was 
very  soon  to  occur.  He  in  a  few  words  announced  his 
determination  to  enforce  the  laws  of  the  land  at  all  haz 
ards,  and  put  down,  with  the  whole  power  of  the  govern 
ment,  if  need  be,  any  illicit  or  violent  attempt  to  counter 
act  or  overturn  them. 

I  remained  with  him  only  a  few  moments,  and  when 
he  rose  up  to  take  leave  of  me  I  ventured  to  say  to  him, 
"Mr.  President,  I  am  delighted  with  this  interview;  the 
fate  of  the  republic  is  in  your  hands,  and  I  rejoice  to  be 
lieve  that  you  are  prepared  to  do  your  whole  duty  at 
this  crisis."  Mr.  Fillmore  having  suggested  that  I  should 
call,  on  my  way  to  the  Capitol,  upon  Mr.  Webster,  I  pro- 


164  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

ceeded  accordingly  to  the  Department  of  State.  I  found 
the  immortal  defender  of  the  Union  alone.  Immediately 
on  my  bringing  the  Boston  outrage  to  Mr.  Webster's  no 
tice,  he  told  me  that  he  had  already  received  full  intelli 
gence  on  the  subject,  and  courteously  turning  to  me, 
said,  "Well,  what  ought  to  be  done?"  To  which  I  re 
sponded  that  I  certainly  had  no  idea  of  intruding  my  ad 
monitions  upon  the  individual  to  whom  the  country  was 
now  looking  for  a  new  "Life  of  Washington"  "Ah!" 
he  exclaimed,  "  I  understand  you.  You  are  thinking  of 
the  whisky  insurrection  in  Pennsylvania,  and  suppose  that 
a  presidential  proclamation  may  be  proper."  I  replied 
that  Mr.  Clay  had  said  that  he  thought  a  proclamation 
ought  to  be  issued.  "Well,"  he  resumed,  "  what  do  you 
think  of  directing  all  the  military  and  naval  forces  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Boston  'to  aid  in  sustaining  the  law?" 
"That  would  seem  to  be  right,"  I  said.  "Very  well; 
what  do  you  say  in  reference  to  calling  out  the  militia 
of  Massachusetts?"  he  continued.  "That,  I  really  sup 
pose,  will  hardly  be  needed,"  I  replied ;  "  for  I  have  met 
on  the  way  hither  a  captain  of  volunteers  in  Boston,  who 
told  me  that  he  was  then  hurrying  home  to  call  out  his 
company,  with  a  view  to  aiding  the  Federal  marshal  in 
maintaining  the  authority  of  the  laws."  "  I  am  glad  to 
hear  that,"  he  said ;  and  then,  rising  up  and  facing  me, 
he  added,  with  great  solemnity  and  emphasis,  "  Be  as 
sured  that  all  these  things  shall  be  done,  and  done  without 
delay,  or  Daniel  Webster  ivill  be  no  longer  a  cabinet  minister." 
After  these  interesting  interviews  I  proceeded  to  the 
hall  of  the  Senate,  where  I  found  Mr.  Hale*  upon  his 

*  The  gentleman  here  referred  to  deserves  to  be  noticed  by  me  a  little 


MK.  HALE   AND   THE   BOSTON   MOB.  165 

legs,  declaiming  most  lustily  against  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  commending  warmly  the  action  of  the  Abolition 

more  particularly.  He  is  undoubtedly  a  person  of  very  uncommon  qual 
ities  as  a  speaker.  His  remarkable  readiness  and  facility  of  speech,  his 
kind  and  genial  temper,  and  his  agreeable  colloquial  powers,  will  ever  be 
pleasantly  recollected  by  those  who  served  with  him  in  the  national  Sen 
ate.  A  month  or  two  after  I  took  my  seat  as  a  member  of  that  bod)-,  I 
was  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  thrown  into  collision  with  him,  under  cir 
cumstances  of  a  very  peculiar  character.  On  the  very  day  that  the  Gott 
resolutions  (already  referred  to)  were  introduced  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  Mr.  Hale  introduced  a  bill  in  the  Senate  during  the  morning 
hour,  and  poured  forth  one  of  the  most  fervid  and  irritating  speeches  upon 
the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  that  I  ever  heard.  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  greatly  inflamed  by  it,  and  came  to  the  seats  of  my  senatorial 
colleague,  Mr.  Davis,  and  myself,  and  urged  us  both  to  say  something  in 
response  to  Mr.  Hale.  Thus  prompted,  we  did  both  assail  Mr.  Hale  and 
his  speech  in  language  not  a  little  excited  in  its  character.  I  must  confess 
that  I  entirely  forgot  myself  on  this  occasion,  and  delivered  a  fierce,  in 
sulting,  and  vindictive  harangue,  wholly  unworthy  of  the  place,  the  mem 
ory  of  which  has  been  ever  most  painful  and  mortifying.  I  even  used 
terms  of  indecent  menace,  and  talked  about  hanging  the  gifted  New 
Hampshire  senator.  When  the  excitement  of  the  moment  passed  away, 
I  was  full  of  contrition  on  account  of  my  grossly  unsenatorial  conduct, 
and  offered  more  than  once  in  my  place  a  formal  apology  for  rudeness 
which  nothing  could  excuse.  The  good-natured  and  forgiving  Mr.  Hale 
acted  a  most  generous  and  manly  part,  and  gave  me  the  most  distinct  as 
surance  that  he  should  harbor  no  unfriendly  feelings  toward  me  on  ac 
count  of  my  faux  pas.  Not  so  the  unsparing  and  unforgiving  public : 
and  I  continued  for  full  ten  years  to  receive  the  most  insulting  and  acri 
monious  anonymous  letters  referring  to  this  affair,  and  denouncing  me  as 
"Hangman  Foote,"  accompanied  sometimes  with  caricatural  representa 
tions  of  a  singularly  striking  and  amusing  character.  About  two  months 
after  this  indecent  conduct,  Mr.  Hale  came  to  me  and  said,  one  morning, 
that  he  had  a  personal  favor  to  ask  at  my  hands.  I  inquired  what  it 
was,  when  he  stated  that  a  young  man  of  tender  years,  whose  family  he 
knew  to  be  very  respectable,  had  just  been  convicted  in  the  District  Court 
of  Washington  of  forgery,  and  was  then  lying  in  prison.  He  stated,  in 


166  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

mob  in  Boston,  and  declaring  that  he  had  always  thought 
and  asserted  that  no  law  which  was  so  much  opposed  to 
local  public  sentiment  as  this  could  ever  be  enforced. 
Upon  his  ceasing  to  speak,  I  rose  and  announced  to 
the  Senate  the  manly  and  patriotic  assurances  which  I 
had  just  received  from  the  lips  of  Mr.  Fillmore  and  Mr. 
Webster,  and  concluded  by  declaring  that,  before  the 
termination  of  the  day  that  was  then  passing  away,  all 
America  would  learn  that  there  were  high-spirited  and 
fearless  men  now  in  power  who  would  dare  to  do  their 
duty  to  the  Constitution  and  the  country,  despite  all  that 
sectional  factionists  might  essay  to  bring  the  government 
and  its  laws  into  contempt.  I  had  not  taken  my  seat 
before  Mr.  Clay  came  in.  He  rose  when  I  sat  down, 
and  confirmed  all  I  had  previously  stated  in  regard  to 
the  intended  action  of  the  government,  and  uttered  an 
earnest  and  thrilling  invocation  in  favor  of  vindicating 

addition,  that  his  sister,  a  charming  young  lady  from  New  Hampshire, 
had  just  reached  Washington  for  the  purpose  of  procuring,  if  possible, 
her  brother's  release ;  and  did  me  the  honor  to  say  that  he  thought  that 
if  I  would  make  personal  application  to  Secretary  Walker  and  President 
Polk,  this  interesting  object  would  be  easily  attained.  Becoming  satisfied 
from  his  statement  .that  it  was  a  proper  case  for  executive  clemency,  I 
immediately  undertook  the  duty  of  visiting  my  friend,  Mr.  Walker,  and 
the  President,  as  he  desired,  and  in  an  hour  or  two  the  young  man  was 
released,  and  placed  in  the  affectionate  custody  of  his  weeping  sister,  to 
be  escorted  without  delay  to  his  own  New  England  home.  Before  they 
departed,  though,  Mr.  Hale  said  to  the  young  lady,  "When  you  get  home, 
tell  your  friends  that  your  brother  owes  his  liberation  to  the  kindness  of  a 
United  States  senator  from  the  South,  who  is  at  this  moment  receiving  a 
great  deal  of  unjust  abuse  in  the  North.  The  person  who  procured  your 
brother's  discharge  is  the  individual  so  often  spoken  of  as  Hangman 
Foote.  Go  home  and  tell  your  friends  to  abuse  Mr.  Foote  no  more." 


FILLMOEE — WEBSTER— CLAY.  167 

the  violated  majesty  of  the  law.  While  he  was  speak 
ing  he  paused  for  a  moment,  beckoned  me  to  his  posi 
tion,  and  whispered  to  me  that  he  desired  a  short  legisla 
tive  proposition  to  be  drawn  immediately,  which  he 
would  offer  to  the  Senate  before  he  yielded  the  floor,  the 
contents  of  which  he  specified.  I  prepared  the  rough 
draft  of  it  at  once,  had  it  neatly  copied,  and  handed  it  to 
him.  Just  before  closing  he  presented  it  for  the  consid 
eration  of  the  Senate.  He  declared  it  to  have  become 
necessary  to  arm  the  President  with  fuller  powers  than 
he  was  then  supposed  to  possess,  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  law  for  the  recapture  and  restoration  of  fugitives 
from  service.  A  warm  debate  sprang  up  upon  this  prop 
osition,  which  I  remember  brought  my  senatorial  col 
league,  Mr.  Davis,  and  myself  into  sharp  collision.  This 
gentleman  indignantly  scouted  the  idea  of  giving  the 
President  any  additional  power,  and  declared  that  he 
would  not  vote  a  dollar  or  a  man  for  coercing  the  sover 
eign  State  of  Massachusetts  into  respect  for  the  law  which 
had  been  just  violated.  "When  the  final  action  of  the 
Senate  upon  this  interesting  question  occurred  I  chanced 
to  be  absent,  having  been  invited  to  the  city  of  New 
York  to  deliver  an  oration,  on  the  22d  of  February,  in 
honor  of  Washington;  but  I  well  remember  being  deep 
ly  pained,  though  I  was  certainly  not  much  astonished  at 
finding,  from  the  publications  made  in  the  newspapers, 
that  when  the  vote  was  taken  at  last  upon  the  proposi 
tion  to  sustain  President  Fillmore  in  carrying  out  the 
commendable  policy  which  he  had  set  forth  in  a  spe 
cial  message,  addressed  to  the  two  houses  of  Congress, 
extremists  of  the  North  and  extremists  of  the  South 


168  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

united  their  efforts  to  defeat  that  policy,  being  evidently 
bent  upon  giving  evidence  to  the  world  that  the  "  irre 
pressible  conflict"  so  much  bruited  at  the  time  was  not  a 
mere  figment  of  fancy,  but  a  solid  and  fearful  reality  ! 


QUIET   UNDER  THE  COMPROMISE.  169 


CHAPTER  X. 

Country  completely  restored  to  Quiet  under  the  Compromise  Measures, 
except  in  several  of  the  Southern  States. — Exciting  Contest  in  Georgia 
and  Mississippi  in  1850,  '1,  upon  the  Disunion  Issue,  in  both  of  which 
States  the  Union  Cause  is  finally  triumphant. — South  Carolina,  failing 
to  obtain  co-operative  Aid,  at  last  subsides  into  a  State  of  Quietude. — 
The  Election  of  Mr.  Pierce  to  the  Presidency  as  an  avowed  Supporter 
of  the  Finality  Principle,  who  calls  Mr.  Davis  to  the  Department  of 
War,  and  the  Slavery  Agitation  is  at  once  renewed.  —  Mr.  Pierce's 
gross  Infidelity  to  his  Pledges,  by  whose  Indiscretion  and  Misconduct 
the  Conflict  of  sectional  Factions  is  again  revived. — Mr.  Douglas  un 
fortunately  yields  to  the  Counsels  addressed  to  him  from  various  Quar 
ters,  and  introduces  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. — Sectional  Excitement 
greatly  increased  and  intensified  by  that  Measure.  —  Notice  of  the  De 
cease  of  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster,  and  of  their  commanding  intellect 
ual  Powers  and  interesting  Traits  of  Character. 

THE  compromise  struggle  terminated  in  Congress  dur 
ing  the  summer  of  1850,  and  gradually  made  its  way 
into  the  affections  of  the  people  every  where,  a  great 
majority  of  whom  were  well  pleased  with  the  work  per 
formed  by  Mr.  Clay  and  his  patriotic  co-operators.  Fa 
natical  agitators  in  several  of  the  Northern  States  still 
continued  for  a  time  to  rail  against  what  had  been  done, 
and  to  accuse  the  wisest  and  most  conservative  statesmen 
that  the  republic  contained  of  having  perpetrated  the 
most  criminal  violation  of  the  great  and  fundamental 
principles  of  universal  liberty  and  equality ;  while  in  the 
far  South,  agitators  equally  excited,  and  bent  upon  dis 
turbing  the  public  peace,  were  pouring  forth  fierce  and 
violent  harangues  for  states'  rights,  secession,  and  a  sep- 

H 


170  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

arate  Southern  republic.  In  Virginia,  Tennessee,  Mary 
land,  Delaware,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky,  Missouri, 
Arkansas,  Louisiana,  Texas,  and  Florida,  the  compromise 
enactments  were  cordially  acquiesced  in.  In  Alabama, 
after  a  very  short  struggle,  the  governor  and  Legislature 
imitated  the  noble  example  of  the  states  just  named.  In 
South  Carolina  movements  soon  occurred  which  clearly 
indicated  that  a  majority  of  her  people,  misled  by  the 
delusory  teachings  of  some  of  the  most  ingenious  and 
plausible  political  agitators  that  our  hemisphere  has  yet 
known,  were  fast  making  up  their  mind  no  longer  to 
remain  in  a  Federal  Union  which  they  had  learned  to 
detest,  or  submit  to  the  authority  of  a  government  which 
they  regarded  as  menacing  them  with  intolerable  oppres 
sion.  There  were  public  men  even  in  South  Carolina 
who  were  exceedingly  opposed  to  all  rash  and  fatal 
measures,  and  who  were  by  no  means  ready  to  try  the 
rash  hazards  of  such  an  experiment  as  that  in  which  they 
were  now  invited  to  participate.  Among  these  was  the 
present  provisional  governor  of  South  Carolina,  Mr.  Per 
ry,  so  judiciously  selected  a  few  months  since  by  Presi 
dent  Johnson  to  assist  in  the  important  work  of  recon 
struction^  .now  in  such  successful  progress,  and  whose  con 
duct  in  this  high  and  responsible  station  has  gained  for 
him  a  position  so  enviable  in  the  estimation  of  his  coun 
trymen  every  where.  It  is  a  somewhat  curious  and 
pleasing  coincidence  that  Governor  Perry,  of  South  Car 
olina,  and  Governor  Sharkey,  of  Mississippi,  without 
knowing  each,  other  personally,  as  I  am  informed,  not 
only  took  the  same  moderate  and  patriotic  course  in 
1850  and  1851,  but  some  six  or  seven  years  later  clistin- 


STRUGGLE   FOR  DISUNION  IN  GEORGIA.  171 

guished  themselves  alike  in  opposing  the  reopening  of 
the  African  slave-trade ;  and  now,  for  the  rendition  of 
similar  patriotic  services  to  their  country,  they  have  both 
been  called  to  take  a  still  more  prominent  part  in  the 
councils  of  the  nation  as  co-members  of  the  United  States 
Senate.  Georgia  and  Mississippi  were,  in  1850,  the  only 
states  in  the  South,  except  South  Carolina  herself,  who 
had  not  yet  yielded  formal  assent  to  the  compromise 
measures,  and  whose  ultimate  action  in  this  regard  was 
at  all  doubtful.  In  the  former  state  a  Union  organiza 
tion  was  speedily  set  on  foot,  mainly  under  the  auspices 
of  Messrs.  Stephens,  Toombs,  and  Cobb,  which  very  soon, 
in  entire  disregard  of  ancient  party  prejudices  and  obli 
gations,  brought  into  hearty  and  effective  co-operation  all 
the  conservative  elements  of  the  state,  and  a  large  pro 
portion  also  of  the  ability  which  had  previously  displayed 
itself  in  this  intelligent  and  populous  commonwealth. 
A  well-known  struggle  had  at  that  period  its  progress  in 
Georgia,  which  resulted  in  the  signal  triumph  of  Mr. 
Cobb  for  the  office  of  governor,  and  in  obtaining  an  em 
phatic  popular  endorsement  of  the  principles  embodied 
-in  what  has  been  known  as  the  Georgia  platform.  No 
one  can  now  doubt  that,  had  this  important  contest  re 
sulted  differently,  the  civil  war  which  has  of  late  so  un 
happily  occurred  would  have  had  its  dark  and  doleful 
progress  ten  years  earlier.  South  Carolina  only  waited 
for  the  co-operation  of  a  single  state  beyond  her  own 
borders,  and  was  prepared  to  consummate  her  well-ma 
tured  project  of  separation  whenever  it  should  be  ascer 
tained  that  she  would  not  stand  absolutely  alone  in  the 
contemplated  struggle. 


172  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

The  course  of  events  at  the  same  period  in  Mississippi 
is  a  part  of  the  painful  history  of  the  country,  and  must 
therefore  be  passed  in  review ;  but  I  shall  labor  to  be  as 
concise  on  this  branch  of  the  subject  as  is  possible,  by 
reason  of  my  own  personal  connection  with  the  scenes 
which  then  occurred.     It  had  been  my  fortune  to  stand 
alone  in  Congress  in  1850,  from  the  State  of  Mississippi, 
as  a  supporter  of  the  compromise  enactments.     All  my 
five  colleagues  in  the  two  houses  were  zealously  opposed 
to  these  measures,  and  closely  banded  themselves  togeth 
er,  in  order  to  make  their  opposition  to  them  more  effect 
ual  among  the  people  of  Mississippi  than  it  had  been  in 
Washington  City.     The  governor  of  the  state,  General 
Quitman,  was  in  close  alliance  with  them,  as  were  more 
than  two  thirds  of  the  Legislature,  and  as  large  a  propor 
tion  of  all  the  public  officers  of  the  state.     The  Legisla-> 
ture  was  persuaded  to  censure  me  by  formal  resolutions,  ] 
which  had  been  most  widely  disseminated.     Nearly  ev- 1 
ery  newspaper  in  the  state  condemned  my  conduct  in^ 
Congress,  and  I  was  daily  subjected  in  their  columns  to; 
such  bitter  and  violent  denunciation  as  few  men,  I  am  | 
persuaded,  have  been  fated  to  experience.     A  new  polit 
ical  organization  was  set  on  foot  at  the  capital  of  the 
state,  which  was  quickly  ramified  into  every  county  and 
neighborhood  in  Mississippi,  whose  avowed  aim,  it  was  to , 
unite  with  the  State  of  South  Carolina  in  the  extreme ' 
policy  which  she  had  avowed,  and  into  this  organization 
were  invited  all  who  concurred  in  opposing  the  measures ' 
of  compromise,  without  regard  to  their  former  party  ties 
or  designation.     It  was  most  manifest  that  I  had  now 
naught  upon  which  to  rely  save  the  protecting  aid  of  a 


NOBLE  CONDUCT  OF  MR.  CLAY.        173 

bounteous  Providence,  the  good  sense  and  sterling  patri 
otism  of  the  popular  masses,  my  own  zeal  and  activity, 
and  the  generous  and  manly  aid  of  such  friends  of  the 
cause  of  the  Union,  either  in  Mississippi  or  elsewhere,  as 
might  judge  me  worthy  of  their  sympathy  and  counte 
nance.  Among  these  friends  was  the  august  chief  of  the 
Compromise*  himself,  whose  voluntary  and  active  zeal  in 
my  support  at  this  crisis  was  as  unexpected,  and  as  unso 
licited  also,  as  it  was  profoundly  gratifying.  Without 
my  knowledge,  Mr.  Clay  addressed  letters  to  his  numer 
ous  political  friends  in  Mississippi  in  my  behalf,  which  I 
met  wherever  I  went  in  the  canvass  I  had  afterward  to 
perform,  and  which  called  around  me  every  where  en- 

*  Of  course,  I  here  allude  to  Mr.  Clay.  Before  leaving  this  topic,  I  can 
not  refrain  from  mentioning,  in  this  unimposing  form,  a  touching  inci 
dent  that  had  occurred  a  few  weeks  before  the  scene  above  described, 
which  is  worthy  of  preservation,  as  giving  evidence  of  Mr.  Clay's  tender 
ness  of  heart  and  generously  sympathizing  nature.  On  reaching  "Wash 
ington  City,  after  the  contest  between  Messrs.  Quitman  and  Davis,  as  the 
champions  of  disunion,  and  myself,  I  called  on  Mr.  Clay,  in  company  with 
Wm.  II.  King,  of  Alabama,  and  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  of  New  York.  He 
entertained  a  high  esteem  and  warm  friendship  for  both  these  gentlemen, 
and  met  them,  on  this  occasion,  with  the  most  graceful  and  impressive 
display  of  cordiality.  After  he  had  saluted  them,  I  approached  him, 
when,  feeble  as  he  was,  he  rushed  toward  me  and  seized  me  in  his  arms, 
manifesting  every  token  of  the  deepest  inward  emotion,  and  uttered 
words  of  congratulation  and  gratitude  commingled  which  I  may  not  now 
recite.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  honor  then  bestowed  on  me  by  this, 
great  and  good  man  has  ever  since  been  cherished  as  one  of  the  proudest 
and  most  gratifying  recollections  of  a  life  of  suffering  and  vicissitudes, 
and  has  been  often  since  a  source  of  consolation  when  assailed  by  the  low- 
minded,  the  envious,  and  the  malignant;  nor  would  I  now  exchange  the 
remembered  delights  of  that  moment  for  all  the  dignities  which  tho 
crowned  monarchs  of  earth  have  it  in  their  power  to  confer. 


174  SCYLLA  AND  CHAEYBDIS. 

thusiastic  and  valuable  supporters,  without  whose  zeal 
ous  aid  it  would  have  been  altogether  impossible  for 
me  to  weather  the  rude  gales  with  which  my  frail  polit 
ical  bark  had  now  to  contend.  Nor  was  this  conduct  on 
the  part  of  Mr.  Clay  at  all  surprising,  under  all  the  cir 
cumstances  which  had  been  recently  occurring.  It  was 
true  that  I  had  opposed,  in  a  temperate  and  courteous 
manner,  in  the  beginning  of  the  session  of  1849,  '50,  the 
programme  which  Mr.  Clay  first  laid  before  the  Senate, 
that  programme  containing,  as  all  intelligent  men  know, 
an  abstract  assertion  of  the  power  of  Congress  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  the  territories,  and  to  abolish  it  in  the  District  of 
Columbia ;  a  declaration  of  opinion  in  regard  to  the 
of  Texas  to  the  disputed  territory  afterward  conceded  to 
her,  and  a  claim  of  separate  admission  in  behalf  of  Cali 
fornia — in  regard  to  neither  of  which  points  could  I  agree 
with  him.  But  when  he  had,  with  true  practical  wisdom-, 
and  with  the  most  singular  elevation  of  spirit,  declined  to 
press  either  of  the  disputed  points,  and  consented  to  be 
come  our  leader  in  a  scheme  of  general  adjustment,  I 
hope  that  no  one  in  Congress  evinced  for  him  a  more 
uniform  and  truly  deferential  respect  than  I  did,  or  fought 
under  his-  command,  according  to  the  very  limited  meas 
ure  of  my  abilities  (and  always,  as  I  have  ever  confessed, 
in  a  very  subordinate  position),  than  I  did.  Perhaps  I 
ought  to  have  confidently  anticipated  this  sympathy  and 
support  from  Mr.  Clay,  after  having  heard  him  declare  in 
the  hall  of  the  old  Confederate  Congress  at  Annapolis,  in 
the  eventful  summer  of  1850,  while  standing  precisely 
upon  that  part  of  the  floor  of  that  hallowed  edifice  where 
he  learned  that  "Washington  had  stood  when,  after  the 


CONTEST  FOR  DISUNION  IN  MISSISSIPPI.  175 

war  of  the  Kevolution,  he  surrendered  his  sword  to  his  re 
deemed  country's  representatives,  that  henceforward  that 
party  should  be  his  party  that  showed  itself  to  be  most  faithful 
in  defending  and  in  maintaining  the  Union  of  our  fathers. 

I  shall  leave  it  to  some  other  to  record  (if  any  perma 
nent  recollection  of  it  shall  be  deemed  desirable)  what 
took  place  in  Mississippi  during  the  autumn  of  1850  and 
the  summer  and  autumn  of  1851,  when,  as  candidate  for 
governor  upon  the  Union  ticket,  I  had  first  to  encoun 
ter  General  John  A.  Quitman  as  an  opponent,  and  subse 
quently,  upon  his  withdrawal  from  the  contest,  the  now 
world  -  renowned  Jefferson  Davis.  I  shall  not  in  these 
pages  minutely  tell  how  the  Union  cause  became  finally 
triumphant ;  how  the  people  of  Mississippi,  as  the  result 
of  a  severe  political  contest,  determined  that  I  should 
serve  them  in  the  office  of  governor  in  preference  to 
either  of  my  more  popular  military  competitors,  and  be- 
again  returned  as  their  representative  in  the  national 
Senate,  to  the  seat  which  I  formerly  occupied  in  that 
body  (having  resigned  it  at  the  demand  of  the  friends 
of  the  Union,  in  order  to  test  more  fully  the  strength  of 
the  compromise  measutes  with  which  I  was  supposed  to 
be  specially  identified) ;  how  a  majority  of  senators  in 
the  state  Legislature,  Secessionists  in  creed,  and  holding 
over  from  another  election,  refused  to  go  into  a  joint 
legislative  convention  in  order  to  choose  a  United  States 
senator  at  the  time  provided  for  by  law,  avowedly  for  the 
purpose  of  defeating  my  election,  they  knowing  well  that 
in  such  joint  convention  I  would  have  a  majority  of  more 
than  thirty  votes ;  how  the  Union  organization  was  af 
terward  unfortunately  thrown  into  a  state  of  partial  dis- 


176  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

solution  in  consequence  of  the  coming  on  of  the  presi 
dential  election  of  1852 ;  how  the  same  organization  was 
fatally  enfeebled  by  the  direct  intermeddling  of  the  ad 
ministration  of  Mr.  Pierce,  and  by  the  corrupt  employ 
ment  of  official  patronage ;  how  afterward  the  Secession 
ists  of  Mississippi,  adroitly  taking  back  the  name  of  Dem 
ocrat^  which  they  had  once  solemnly  and  formally  relin 
quished,  suddenly  recuperated  their  strength  by  the  an 
nouncement  of  a  new  political  issue  involving  the  shame 
less  and  disgraceful  repudiation  of  the  Planters'  Bank 
bonds,  the  validity  of  which  stood  explicitly  and  em 
phatically  guaranteed  by  the  state  Constitution ;  how,  in 
consequence  of  this  last  most  opprobrious  act,  openly 
countenanced  and  undeniably  participated  in  by  Mr. 
Davis  himself,  I  indignantly  resigned  the  office  of  gov 
ernor  and  migrated  to  the  far-distant  coast  of  California ; 
how,  even  in  California,  I  was  afterward  pursued  by  the 
remorseless  vengeance  of  Mr.  Davis  and  his  cabinet  al 
lies,  who,  learning  that  I  had  been  taken  up  by  a  large 
majority  of  the  California  Legislature  as  a  candidate  for 
the  national  Senate,  mainly  on  the  ground  of  my  known 
devotion  to  the  Union,  and  my  openly-declared  opposi 
tion  to  their  corrupt  use  of  the  patronage  of  the  govern 
ment,  again  contrived,  by  employing  exactly  the  same 
means  which  had  been  so  successfully  exerted  for  a  sim 
ilar  purpose  two  years  before  in  Mississippi,  to  defeat  a 
joint  legislative  Convention  by  the  vote  of  a  bare  majority 
in  the  state  Senate,  in  each  instance  creating  a  vacancy 
in  the  senatorial  representation  of  a  sovereign  state — all 
these  things,  thus  runningly  suggested,  I  now  dismiss, 
and  proceed  to  other  matters  of  higher  dignity. 


GENERAL  ACQUIESCENCE   IN  THE   COMPROMISE.    177 

After  the  result  of  the  contests  in  Georgia  and  in  Mis 
sissippi  to  which  I  have  just  referred,  the  good  people  of 
South  Carolina,  being  summoned  by  the  champions  of 
extreme  measures  to  assemble  in  convention  for  the  pur 
pose  of  adopting  an  ordinance  of  secession,  and  having 
the  question  fairly  submitted  to  them  whether  they  would 
separately  secede  or  await  the  co-operation  of  other  states, 
decided  in  favor  of  the  latter  proposition.  So  the  "  irre 
pressible  conflict"  was  at  least  brought  to  a  pause;  an  in- 
termissive  period  of  peace  and  good-will  was  allowed  to 
have  place,  and  the  movements  of  sectional  factionists  on 
either  side  of  the  line  of  separation  between  the  slave- 
holding  and  non-slaveholding  portions  of  the  Union  were 
suspended  for  a  season,  and,  indeed,  until  similar  causes 
should  beget  similar  consequences.  Mr.  Greeley,  in  his 
"American  Conflict,"  is  therefore  fully  justified  in  say 
ing,  as  he  does  in  the  beginning  of  his  sixteenth  chapter, 
"  But,  whatever  theoretic  or  practical  objections  may  be 
justly  made  to  the  Compromise  of  1850,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  was  accepted  and  ratified  by  a  great  major 
ity  of  the  American  people,  whether  in  the  North  or  in 
the  South.  |  They  were  intent  on  business,  then  remark 
ably  prosperous — on  planting,  building,  trading,  and  get 
ting  gain,  and  they  hailed  with  general  joy  the  announce 
ment  that  all  the  differences  between  the  diverse  'sec 
tions'  had  been  adjusted  and  settled.  The  terms  of  set 
tlement  were,  to  that  majority,  of  quite  subordinate  con 
sequence;  they  wanted  peace  and  prosperity,  and  were 
nowise  inclined  to  cut  each  others'  throats  and  burn  each 
others'  houses  in  a  quarrel  concerning  (as  they  regarded 
it)  only  the  status  of  negroes.  The  compromise  had  taken 

112 


178  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

no  money  from  their  pockets ;  it  had  imposed  upon  them 
no  pecuniary  burdens;  it  had  exposed  them  to  no  per 
sonal  and  palpable  dangers;  it  had  rather  repelled  the 
gaunt  spectre  of  civil  war  and  disunion,  habitually  con 
jured  up  when  slavery  had  a  point  to  carry,  and  increased 
the  facilities  for  making  money,  while  opening  a  bound 
less  vista  of  national  greatness,  security,  and  internal  har 
mony.  Especially  by  the  trading  class  and  the  great  ma 
jority  of  the  dwellers  in  sea-board  cities  was  this  view 
cherished  with  intense,  intolerant  vehemence." 

Mr.  Greeley  in  this  chapter  bestows  a  passing  attention 
upon  the  gubernational  contest  in  Mississippi,  of  which 
I  have  already  said  as  much  as  is  necessary  to  be  here  re 
corded,  and  does  me  the  honor  to  state  that  I  had  "  sup 
ported  the  compromise  in  Congress  to  the  extent  of  my 
(his)  ability,"  which  is  certainly  all  that  I  could  possibly 
claim  to  have  done,  and  for  this  frank  acknowledgment 
by  him  of  my  supposed  merits,  I  trust  he  will  consider 
me  as  being  truly  grateful. 

The  quiet  which  the  compromise  had  restored  was  not 
again  seriously  disturbed  during  the  administration  of 
Mr.  Fillmore ;  and  it  is  now  most  evident  that,  had  this 
gentleman,  with  his  wise  and  practical  conservatism,  been 
chosen  President  instead  of  Mr.  Pierce  in  1852,  and  had 
the  principles  which  so  honorably  distinguished  his  ad 
ministration  been  faithfully  observed  by  succeeding  pres 
idents,  the  grim  demon  of  disunion  would  not  have  been 
conjured  into  existence,  and  the  permanent  discredit 
which  has  fallen  upon  our  country  of  having  permitted 
the  copious  outpouring  of  the  blood  of  brothers  upon 
their  own  natal  soil  in  unnatural  domestic  feud  would 


INFIDELITY  OF   ME.  PIERCE  TO  HIS  PLEDGES.     179 

have  been,  in  all  probability,  avoided  for  centuries,  if  not 
for  an  indefinite  period. 

But  such  was  not  to  be  our  good  fortune.  Mr.  Pierce 
was  put  in  nomination  by  the  Democratic  party  for  the 
presidency  in  1852.  He  pledged  himself  most  solemnly 
to  recognize,  in  the  high  station  to  which  he  was  about 
to  be  elected,  the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  of  which 
so  much  has  been  said  in  these  pages  already,  as  a  "final 
settlement,  in  principle  and  in  substance,  of  the  distracting 
questions  of  slavery."  He  had  been  indebted  for  his 
nomination  at  Baltimore  to  the  declarations  which  he 
was  reported  to  have  previously  made  of  the  duty  of 
whomsoever  might  be  constituted  President  so  to  distrib 
ute  the  official  patronage  in  his  gift  as  to  encourage  the 
purest  nationality  of  sentiment,  and  to  discourage  every 
thing  like  sectionalism.  And  yet  he  had  scarcely  been 
elected  to  the  presidency  when  he  called  into  special  con 
ference  Mr.  Hunter,  of  Virginia,  one  of  the  most  extreme 
men  in  his  opinions  that,  outside  of  South  Carolina,  the 
whole  South  contained,  "and  the  noted  Caleb  Cushing,  of 
Massachusetts,  who  had  signalized  himself  very  specially, 
many  years  before,  by  delivering  the  most  furious  and 
•uncompromising  abolition  speech  ever  heard  in  Con 
gress  upon  the  occasion  of  Arkansas  asking  for  admis 
sion  into  the  Union,  and  who,  although  he  had  afterward 
yielded  support  to  the  administration  of  Mr.  Tyler  for  a 
short  period,  for  which  his  services  had  been  rewarded 
with  an  Oriental  commissionership,  and  had  subsequent 
ly  given  his  support  to  the  Mexican  "War,  and  gone 
through  certain  romantic  adventures  beyond  the  Eio 
Grande  without  having  a  chance  of  staining  his  virgin 


180  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

sword  with  the  hated  blood  of  the  foe,  had  really  not  a 
particle  of  claim  to  control  the  action  of  a  Democratic 
administration  entering  upon  its  official  career  under 
such  circumstances  as  those  which  now  surrounded  Mr. 
Pierce.  These  two  sage  advisers  are  understood  to  have 
counseled  Mr.  Pierce  to  call  to  his  cabinet  Mr.  Jefferson 
Davis,  of  Mississippi,  who  was  then  in  profound  retire 
ment  after  his  unsuccessful  experiment  of  secession  in 
1851,  in  which  retirement  it  is  quite  certain  he  would 
have  permanently  remained  but  for  Mr.  Pierce  being 
weak  enough  to  act  upon  this  advice.  It  is  understood 
that  this  particular  appointment  was  made  with  a  view 
to  conciliating  the  Secessionists  of  the  South,  who  had 
yielded  to  Mr.  Pierce  but  a  cold  and  reluctant  support ; 
many  of  them,  indeed,  and  especially  in  Mr.  Davis's  own 
state,  having  altogether  declined  voting  in  the  election. 
Mr.  Gushing,  who  was  to  be  attorney  general  of  the  new 
regime,  had  reason  to  believe  that,  by  force  of  early  polit 
ical  affiliations,  and  by  the  skillful  distribution  of  the 
spoils  of  office,  he  could  bring  into  the  fold  all  the  aspi 
rants  to  public  station  who  then  belonged  to  the  aboli 
tion  faction  in  the  North,  while  Mr.  Davis,  by  discrimina 
ting  in  appointments  to  office  in  favor  of  known  disun- 
ionists,  and  against  those  who  had  battled  so  faithfully 
for  the  compromise  measures  throughout  the  South,  it 
was  confidently  expected  would  work  wonders  in  attract 
ing  to  the  support  of  his  over-confiding  chief  the  section 
al  factionists  of  that  region.  It  was,  fancifully  enough, 
supposed  that  the  friends  of  the  Union  every  where  would 
infallibly  remain  firm  in  the  support  of  Mr.  Pierce  on  the 
ground  of  his  former  professions,  so  that  there  was,  upon 


MISCHIEVOUS  TREACHERY  OF  MR.  PIERCE.        181 

the  whole,  as  they  opined,  a  capital  prospect  opening 
upon  the  country  of  an  administration  of  four  years  which 
would  be  fortunate  enough  to  encounter  no  enemies,  and 
an  equally  flattering  prospect  that  Mr.  Pierce  would  him 
self  be  re-elected  in  1856,  or  that  the  privilege  would  be 
accorded  to  him  by  a  grateful  country  of  nominating  his 
own  successor.  How  signally  and  cruelly  all  these  fine 
spun  calculations  were  disappointed  in  the  sequel,  arid 
how  soon  all  these  vapid  and  airy  speculations  were  fated 
to  pass  away  into  the  sombre  region  of  nothingness,  the 
world  now  knows.  Mr.  Pierce,  who  imagined  himself  to 
have,  and  was  supposed  by  some  of  his  friends  to  have 
quite  a  pretty  talent  for  declamatory  rhetoric,  commenced, 
so  soon  as  he  had  a  chance  to  do  so,  discoursing,  in  his 
messages  and  otherwise,  of  the  blessings  of  slavery ;  ex 
tolled  the  South,  and  her  modes  of  thought  and  senti 
ment,  in  language  of  glowing  exuberance;  announced 
himself  to  all  the  world  as  the  champion  of  her  slave- 
holding  rights  and  interests ;  and  very  soon  managed  to 
disgust  most  heartily  every  truly  national  man  in  the 
country ;  while  his  lavish  outpouring  of  the  sheaves  of 
political  patronage  upon  the  Democratic  free-soilers  of 
the  North  enabled  the  Eepublican  faction  in  the  end  to 
redeem  itself  most  effectually  from  the  discredit  into 
which  it  had  been  plunged  during  the  period  of  Mr.  Fill- 
rnore's  administration,  building  it  up  and  strengthening 
it  greatly  for  the  expected  presidential  contest  of  1856. 
Meanwhile  Mr.  Pierce  and  his  cabinet  assistants  openly 
and  unblushingly  interfered  in  all  the  political  elections 
in  the  states,  employed  patronage  every  where  in  order 
to  control  votes,  and  spread  throughout  the  republic 


182  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

such,  an  abominable  spirit  of  huckstering  and  corrupt 
political  bargaining  as  even  Walpole,  in  his  palmiest  clays 
of  official  glory,  had  never  been  able  to  call  into  exist 
ence.  In  less  than  a  twelve-month  after  Mr.  Pierce's  in 
duction  into  the  presidency,  every  man  of  solid  under 
standing,  both  in  Congress  and  elsewhere,  who  had  aided 
this  ill-starred  scion  of  the  Granite  State  in  reaching  the 
presidency,  became  satisfied  that  he  was  utterly  incompe 
tent  for  the  performance  of  the  high  duties  which  had 
devolved  upon  him,  and  honest  men  every  where  were 
filled  with  mingled  amazement  and  disgust  at  nearly  all 
that  was  from  time  to  time  reported  to  be  occurring  un 
der  his  sinister  auspices  either  at  home  or  abroad.  Such 
men  as  Daniel  S.  Dickinson  and  the  lamented  Justice 
Bronson,  of  New  York,  and  many  other  Democrats  of  al 
most  equal  eminence  elsewhere,  were  driven  into  oppo 
sition  by  such  acts  of  official  arrogance  and  folly  as  are 
rarely  known  to  mark  the  course  of  public  events  in  a 
free  country;  and  innumerable  official  blunders,  Ostend 
manifestoes,  and  such  like  vagaries  included,  soon  made 
Mr.  Pierce  and  his  cabinet  as  sublimely  ridiculous  before 
the  world  at  large,  as  their  domestic  economy  had  ren 
dered  them  alike  powerful  for  mischief  and  impotent  for 
good  within  the  confines  of  their  own  country. 

Yery  unfortunately  for  that  country,  and,  as  I  must 
think,  for  Mr.  Douglas's  own  well-earned  fame,  this  gen 
tleman  was  induced,  under  very  strong  solicitations  from 
various  individuals  of  the  extreme  Southern  school,  and 
by  the  persuasions  likewise  of  at  least  one  member  of 
Mr.  Pierce's  cabinet,  connected  with  something  like  half 
promises  of  future  political  support,  to  originate,  or  rath- 


STEPHEN   A.  DOUGLAS.  183 

er  to  adopt  from  a  Southern  source,  a  new  scheme  of 
action  in  regard  to  the  then  suppressed  issue  of  slavery, 
which,  in  its  rapid  development,  was  productive  of  re 
newed  agitation  both  in  the  South  and  in  the  North,  a 
view  of  the  consequences  of  which,  had  he  been  able  at 
that  time  to  descry  them  in  the  future  history  of  his 
country,  would  have  effectually  deterred  one  of  his  patri 
otic  impulses  from  running  the  fiery  and  troublous  career 
which  was  presently  to  open  before  him,  and  which  was 
in  a  few  years  to  fill  his  bosom  with  poignant  anguish, 
to  surround  him  with  innumerable  and  irreconcilable 
foes,  to  break  down  even  his  Herculean  physical  frame, 
and  to  conduct  him,  amid  the  opening  scenes  of  a  fearful 
civil  war,  to  a  premature  grave.  I  am  understood,  of 
course,  as  referring  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  which 
was  made  to  contain  a  provision  for  repealing  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  or,  rather  (which  was  virtually  tho 
same  thing),  declaring  the  Missouri  Compromise  restrict 
ive  clause  to  be  repugnant  to  the  principle  of  non-inter 
vention,  which  constituted  the  chief  feature  of  the  Compro 
mise  of  1850.  I  shall  not  now  expatiate  upon  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill.  The  world  knows  all  its  fatal  provisions 
by  heart,  and  our  country  has  freely  bled  over  these  same 
provisions.  .  I  certainly  never  regarded  any  part  of  the 
bill  as  unconstitutional,  nor  do  I  consider  it  to  have  made 
war  directly  upon  any  principle  embodied  in  the  compro 
mise  measures  of  1850 ;  but  I  have  ever  been  of  opin 
ion  that  this  new  arrangement  was  altogether  repugnant 
to  the  spirit  in  which  the  compromise  measures  of  1850 
had  been  framed,  and  palpably  violative  of  the  principle 
of  finality  upon  which  the  peace  of  the  country  had  been 


184  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

expected  to  repose.  I  do  personally  know  that  it  was 
not  at  all  intended  by  Mr.  Clay  and  those  who  co-oper 
ated  with  him  in  1850,  to  interfere  at  all  with  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise.  It  was  contemplated  that  the  ques 
tion  whether  the  restrictive  clause  in  that  compromise 
was  or  was  not  valid  was  to  be  left  to  the  courts,  and  I 
will  add,  that  some  of  us  in  1850  acted  in  this  matter 
•upon  the  conviction  which  we  had  then  clearly  formed, 
and  on  several  occasions  had  also  expressed,  that  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States,  when  that  tribunal 
should  be  appealed  to,  would  render  just  such  a  decision 
upon  the  constitutionality  of  the  restrictive  act  of  1820 
as  has  since  been  promulged.  I  confess  that,  notwith 
standing  my  profound  respect  for  Mr.  Douglas,  whose 
presidential  aspirations  in  1860  evoked  my  hearty  sup 
port,  I  could  not  but  be  most  painfully  surprised  when, 
away  off  upon  the  Pacific  coast,  I  learned  that  he  had 
consented,  under  any  persuasions  whatever,  to  be  the 
chief  actor  in  a  proceeding  which  it  seemed  to  me  must 
inevitably  renew  slavery  agitation;  and  especially  was 
this  the  case,  when  I  reflected  upon  the  fact  that  he  had 
objected  even  to  the  finality  resolution  introduced  by  me 
in  the  Senate  in  the  winter  of  1852,  not  at  all  upon  the 
ground  that  he  did  not  entirely  approve  its  object,  but 
alone,  and  most  emphatically,  upon  the  ground  that  it 
might  by  possibility  renew  sectional  strife.  It  is  really 
painful  to  look  back  upon  the  past,  and  observe  that,  even 
in  the  early  part  of  the  Thirty-third  Congress,  Mr.  Doug 
las  had  himself  brought  in  a  well-written  and  most  delib 
erate  report,  in  which  he  had  used  the  following  clear 
and  explicit  language ;  referring  to  the  restrictive  provi- 


KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL.  185 

sion  in  the  Missouri  Compromise,  lie  says:  "Under  this 
section,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Mexican  law  in  New  Mexi 
co  and  Utah,  it  is  a  disputed  point  whether  slavery  is 
prohibited  in  the  Nebraska  country  by  valid  enactment. 
The  decision  of  this  question  involves  the  constitutional 
power  of  Congress  to  pass  laws  prescribing  and  regula 
ting  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  various  territories  of 
the  Union.  In  the  opinion  of  those  eminent  statesmen 
who  hold  that  Congress  is  invested  with  no  rightful  au 
thority  to  legislate  upon  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the 
territories,  the  8th  section  of  the  act  preparatory  to  the 
admission  of  Missouri  is  null  and  void ;  while  the  pre 
vailing  sentiment  in  large  portions  of  the  Union  sustains 
the  doctrine  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
secures  to  every  citizen  an  inalienable  right  to  move  into 
any  of  the  territories  with  his  property,  of  whatever  kind 
and  description,  and  to  hold  and  enjoy  the  same  under  the 
sanction  of  law.  Your  committee  do  not  feel  themselves 
called  upon  to  enter  upon  the  discussion  of  these  contro 
verted  questions.  They  involve  the  same  grave  issues 
which  produced  the  agitation,  the  sectional  strife,  and  the 
fearful  struggle  of  1850.  As  Congress  deemed  it  wise 
and  prudent  to  refrain  from  deciding  the  matter  in  contro 
versy  then,  either  by  affirming  or  repealing  the  Mexican 
laws,  or  by  an  act  declaratory  of  the  true  intent  of  the 
Constitution,  and  the  extent  of  the  protection  afforded  by 
it  to  slave  property  in  the  territories,  so  your  committee 
are  not  prepared  to  recommend  a  departure  from  the 
course  pursued  on  that  memorable  occasion,  either  by  af 
firming  or  repealing  the  8th  section  of  the  Missouri  act,  or  by 
any  act  declaratory  of  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution  in  re 
spect  to  the  legal  points  in  dispute." 


186  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

The  two  august  chiefs  of  the  compromise,  Mr.  Clay  and 
Mr.  Webster,  were  now,  alas,  in  their  graves.  Had  they 
continued  to  live,  I  am  satisfied  that  no  controversial  dis 
cussion  of  this  fearful  question  would  have  occurred  of  a 
nature  calculated  inevitably  to  sweep  away  in  its  course, 
as  with  the  besom  of  destruction,  slavery  and  all  the  ex 
isting  legal  regulations  connected  therewith.  The  verifi 
cation  of  Mr.  Clay's  prophecy  on  this  subject  we  are  all 
now  witnessing,  some  with  feelings  of  tribulation,  and 
some  with  those  of  rejoicing;  the  work  of  sectional  agi 
tation  has  been  productive  of  its  natural  consequences,  and 
in  the  presence  of  that  startling  social  revolution  which, 
under  the  providence  of  God,  has  been  effected  through 
out  that  region  once  devoted  to  slavery,  who,  among 
those  that  have  been  so  criminally  unmindful  of  the  dan 
gers  so  often  pointed  out  in  language  that  would  not 
have  been  unworthy  of  the  most  gifted  of  the  Apostles, 
shall  now  presume  to  complain  at  the  realization  of  a 
state  of  things  which  naught  but  a  strict  and  faithful  ad 
herence  to  the  solid  guarantees  of  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion,  and  the  doing  nothing  to  undermine  and  enfeeble 
them,  could  possibly  have  averted  ? 

And  now,  before  taking  final  leave  of  Mr.  Clay  and 
Mr.  Webster,  let  me  offer  one  or  two  observations  upon 
each  of  them. 

Those  who  have  heard  Mr.  Clay  upon  great  occasions 
admit  that  he  was,  upon  the  whole,  the  most  winning, 
electrical,  and  truly  commanding  speaker  that  has  ap 
peared  in  America  during  the  present  century.  His  con 
versational  powers  were  almost  equally  remarkable,  and 
there  was  an  irresistible  charm,  both  in  his  aspect,  voice, 


HENRY   CLAY— HIS   GREAT  ABILITIES.  187 

and  manner,  when  he  chose  to  exert  his  social  powers 
fully.  He  was  the  frankest  of  men,  and  was  far  too  fear 
less  of  soul  to  seek  safety  in  the  concealment  of  his  opin 
ions  on  any  subject,  or  in  the  profession  of  sentiments  of 
esteem  and  kindness  for  individuals  which  he  did  not 
really  feel.  It  is  now  well  known  that  he  could  have 
been  president  in  1844  had  he  chosen  to  yield  the  special 
pledge  as  to  his  course  upon  the  slavery  question  which 
the  Abolition  supporters  of  Mr.  Birney  sought,  in  a  clan 
destine  manner,  to  obtain  from  him.  There  was  no  pub 
lic  measure  of  an  important  character  in  relation  to  which 
the  humblest  of  his  fellow-citizens  could  not  have  obtain 
ed  his  opinions  by  making  courteous  application  there 
for.  He  was  never  suspected  of  unfairness  or  dishon 
est  intrigue,  except  in  connection  with  Mr.  Adams's  elec 
tion  in  1825 ;  and  I  may  be  excused  for  here  stating  that 
I  was  present,  in  the  summer  of  1850,  on  a  convivial  oc 
casion  of  some  note,  when  he  adverted  to  this  subject  in 
a  pleasant  and  condescending  manner,  and  gave  utterance 
to  a  very  frank  declaration  which  was  exceedingly  grati 
fying  to  all  present.  It  was  at  the  celebrated  dinner 
party  at  the  hospitable  mansion  of  Mr.  Sullivan,  in  Wash 
ington  City,  when  the  venerable  Ritchie,  his  early  friend 
and  associate  in  Eichmond  before  he  had  commenced 
his  brilliant  career  in  the  "West,  and  who,  after  long  es 
trangement,  had  been  recently  reconciled  to  him,  in  a 
manner  half  jocose,  half  serious,  told  him  that  if  he  car 
ried  through  the  compromise  measures,  and  would  prom 
ise  never  again  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  presidency,  he 
would,  if  he  should  survive  him,  plant  a  sprig  of  laurel 
upon  his  grave.  Mr.  Clay,  kindly  adverting  to  the  long- 


188  SCYLLA  AND  CHAEYBDIS. 

continued  opposition  of  the  Kichmond  Enquirer  to  his 
political  advancement,  and  the  grounds  upon  which  that 
opposition  had  been  based,  said,  that  though  his  motives 
in  voting  for  Mr.  Adams,  in  the  Congress  of  1824-'5, 
were  as  pure  as  it  was  possible  for  them  to  have  been, 
and  though,  were  the  election  to  come  over  again,  he 
would  have  to  vote  precisely  as  he  had  done  on  that  oc 
casion,  yet  that,  after  the  painful  experience  which  he 
had  had  of  the  mischievous  effects  growing  out  of  his  ac 
ceptance  under  Mr.  Adams  o£  the  Department  of  State, 
nothing  could  induce  him  to  receive  any  official  appoint 
ment  at  his  hands.  He  confessed  that  this  was  a  most 
serious  official  blunder,  and  had  greatly  impaired  his  pub 
lic  usefulness. 

Linn  Boy  d,  former  speaker  of  the  House  of  Kepresent- 
atives,  called  upon  me  one  morning  during  the  tempestu 
ous  session  of  1850,  and  informed  me  that  he  had  been 
for  many  years  a  bitter  political  adversary  of  Mr.  Clay, 
and  that  he  had,  for  a  series  of  years,  pressed  with  great 
earnestness  the  famous  charge  of  bargain  and  intrigue 
against  him  connected  with  the  election  of  Mr.  Adams ; 
declared  that  he  had  been  greatly  struck  with  Mr. 
Clay's  -patriotic  course  in  the  advocacy  of  the  compro 
mise  measures,  and  asked  that  I  would  call  upon  that 
gentleman  and  request  on  his  behalf  a  face  to  face  inter 
view,  that  he  might  have  an  opportunity  of  making  the 
amende  honorable  as  to  past  unkindnesses.  I  readily  un 
dertook  the  mission  propounded,  and  very  soon  had  the 
gratification  of  witnessing  a  thorough  reconcilement  be 
tween  them.  Several  years  after  Mr.  Clay's  decease,  I 
was  called  upon  by  Boyd,  when  very  hotly  pressed  in  a 


DANIEL  WEBSTER  189 

political  canvass  in  which  he  was  then  engaged  in  the 
State  of  Kentucky,  to  bear  written  testimony  to  the  trans 
action  just  related,  which  of  course  I  could  not  refuse  to  do. 
Of  Mr.  Webster  I  hesitate  to  speak.  He  was  so  much 
superior  in  power  of  thought,  in  grandeur  of  conception, 
in  genuine  logical  power,  in  condensed  vigor  of  expres 
sion,  in  brilliancy  of  fancy,  in  sprightly  and  amiable  face- 
tiousness,  in  the  richest  stores  of  well-digested  knowledge, 
whether  scholastic,  scientific,  or  practical,  to  any  other 
public  man  that  I  have  had  the  fortune  to  know,  or  that 
I  have  ever  heard  described,  that  I  have  no  words  in 
which  to  express  my  admiration  of  him.  I  never  heard 
him  talk  at  his  own  table,  where,  though  the  most  modest 
of  men,  at  the  instance  of  cherished  friends,  he  sometimes 
conversed  freely,  that  I  did  not  sigh  for  the  presence  of  a 
reporter  to  take  down  the  golden  words  that  came  with 
such  &  delightful  impressiveness  from  his  lips.  I  never 
heard  him  speak  in  the  Senate  on  any  occasion  whatev 
er,  when  every  sentence  which  he  uttered  was  not  fit  to 
be  put  in  print.  Who  has  ever  read  a  paragraph  of  his 
masterly  composition  and  desired  to  change  a  syllable? 
Then  his  heart  was  so  kind,  his  manners  were  so  cordial, 
his  aspect  and  demeanor  so  marked  with  touching  sim 
plicity  and  unartificial  dignity,  that,  had  he  not  spoken  a 
word,  he  must  yet  have  been  loved  and  venerated.  The 
last  time  that  I  beheld  this  remarkable  person  was  on  an 
occasion  which  no  man  that  witnessed  it  can  ever  forget. 
On  the  morning  previous  to  my  taking  leave  of  the  na 
tional  Senate  to  return  to  my  own  home  in  Mississippi, 
to  buffet  billows  with  which  I  was  little  able  to  contend, 
I  chanced  to  be  present  at  a  banqueting  scene,  to  which, 


190  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

having  been  long  since  depictured  by  others,  I  may  now 
for  a  moment  recur.  In  a  large  room  in  the  lower  story 
of  Brown's  Hotel,  in  Washington,  a  large  convivial  com 
pany  was  assembled.  Most  of  the  cabinet  functionaries 
of  Mr.  Fillmore  were  present,  a  considerable  proportion  of 
the  ministers  from  foreign  countries  in  attendance  upon 
the  government,  and  some  six  or  eight  of  the  members 
of  Congress  then  in  session. 

The  dinner  was  capital,  the  wine  was  most  select,  the 
banqueters  apparently  most  happy.  Having  to  leave 
the  city  in  the  cars  next  morning,  and  not  having  yet 
completed  my  preparations  for  the  journey,  I  rose  up 
while  my  social  companions  were  still  absorbed  in  the 
delightful  interchange  of  thought  and  sentiment,  and  not 
wishing  to  disturb  the  scene,  made  an  effort  to  steal 
away.  I  soon  found  this  to  be  impossible.  Whether 
what  follows  was  the  result  of  previous  arrangement  I 
know  not,  nor  have  I  ever  thought  it  needful  to  inquire ; 
but  this  is  precisely  what  did  in  point  of  fact  occur :  Mr. 
Webster,  rising,  and  followed  by  the  rest  of  the  compa 
ny,  approached  me  as  I  was  retiring,  and  presently  ad 
dressed  me,  in  the  name  of  those  present,  an  affection 
ate  valedictory,  such  as  he  who  hears  can  never  forget. 
He  spoke  for  some  five  or  ten  minutes  in  prose,  referring 
to  the  various  interesting  public  scenes  which  had  recent 
ly  occurred,  and  presently,  without  confusion  or  hesita 
tion,  he  adopted  the  language  of  poetry,  and  poured  forth 
some  twenty  or  thirty  couplets,  which  either  Pope  or  Dry- 
den,  Byron  or  Moore,  might  have  envied,  all  perfectly 
.germain  to  the  topics  upon  which  he  had  been  descant 
ing,  and  evidently  improvised  at  the  moment,  and  con- 


"DANIEL  WEBSTER  STILL  LIVES."  191 

eluded  by  wishing  me,  in  the  name  of  all,  an  affectionate 
farewell.  It  has  been  published,  years  ago,  that  I  was 
dumbfounded  by  this  extraordinary  address.  I  shall  not 
say  whether  this  is  altogether  true  or  not ;  but  certainly, 
if  I  uttered  any  thing  in  response,  it  is  all  now  lost  to  my 
memory  in  the  overwhelming  recollection  of  this  most 
stupendous  display  of  genius  on  the  part  of  the  wonder 
ful  personage  of  whom  I  have  been  speaking.  "Daniel 
Webster  still  lives,"  and  ever  tuill  continue  to  live,  in  the 
admiration  and  affection  of  the  wise,  the  patriotic,  and  the 
virtuous  !  ! 

How  surprised  and  indignant  must  the  intelligent  and 
magnanimous  of  other  generations  inevitably  be  on  learn 
ing,  as  they  will  unfortunately  do,  that  even  such  a  man 
as  this,  compounded  as  he  was  of  all  the  nobler  and  more 
gracious  elements  of  our  nature,  was  not  permitted  to  es 
cape  the  rough  and  heartless  assaults  of  cold-blooded 
and  mercenary  calumniators  when  living,  nor,  even  after 
death,  suffered  to  remain  quietly  inurned,  without  being 
subjected  to  the  objurgatory  malevolence  of  some  who 
knew  him  familiarly  while  still  lingering  in  the  realms  of 
mortality,  and  whose  most  pleasant  duty  it  should  have 
been  to  keep  his  august  and  sacred  name  forever  bright 
and  untarnished,  and  continually  to  scatter  laurels  of  un 
fading  honor  over  and  around  that  sequestered  tomb 
which  holds  all  that  now  remains  of  the  most  grandly  and 
variously  gifted  man  that  has  ever  yet  borne  the  proud 
name  of  American  ! 


192  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Excited  Struggle  in  Congress  over  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. — Manly 
but  ineffectual  Opposition  to  that  Bill  in  Congress. — Regret  expressed 
at  the  Disappearance  from  the  public  Scene  of  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Webster, 
and  Mr.  Calhoun. — Confident  Opinion  expressed  as  to  what  would  have 
been  Mr.  Calhoun's  Course  had  he  survived  up  to  our  Times. — Fearful 
awakening  of  sectional  Excitement  both  in  the  South  and  in  the  North 
under  the  Influence  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. — Multiplied  Scenes 
of  Blood  and  Violence  in  the  Territory  of  Kansas. — Mr.  Pierce  and  his 
Cabinet  lose  the  Confidence  of  all  Men  of  true  Nationality  of  Sentiment. 
— Mr.  Pierce  defeated  in  the  Cincinnati  Democratic  Convention  by  Mr. 
Buchanan,  who  is  afterward  elected  to  the  Presidency  by  a  plurality 
Vote  over  Fremont  and  Fillmore. — Mr.  Buchanan  delivers  an  Inaugu 
ral  Address  as  President,  replete  with  national  Sentiment,  which  at 
tracts  to  him  the  Support  of  the  American  Party,  and  his  Administra 
tion  grows  overwhelmingly  popular. — He  afterward  treacherously  vio 
lates  all  his  Promises  to  the  Country  under  the  Threats  of  Southern  Se 
cession  Leaders,  and  his  Administration  suddenly  becomes  both  odious 
and  contemptible. — The  Democratic  Party  of  the  North  completely 
crushed  and  broken  down  by  the  fatal  Lecompton  Issue,  and  the  way 
surely  paved  for  the  Election  of  a  Republican  President  in  I860.— Re 
view  of  the  State  of  Parties  at  that  Period. — Some  Notice  of  the  Amer 
ican  Party  and  its  particular  Tenets. — Great  Mistake  of  the  Southern 
People  in  not  yielding  their  Support  to  Mr.  Fillmore  in  1856. — Some 
Notice  of  the  Republican  Candidates  for  President  and  Vice-President 
in  1856,  and  of  certain  curious  Scenes  which  took  place  during  the 
short  period  of  General  Fremont's  official  Connection  with  that  Body. 
— Sketch  of  General  Baker,  one  of  the  earliest  Victims  of  the  War,  and  a 
recital  of  certain  romantic  Occurrences  connected  with  his  Residence 
in  California  and  Oregon. — Signal  Triumph  of  his  extraordinary  ora 
torical  Powers  over  popular  Excitement  and  Prejudice. 

So  was  it  with  our  country  in  the  latter  part  of  Mr. 


STORMY  DEBATE — BADGER  AND  BELL.  *          193 

Pierce's  administration.  Clay,  "Webster,  and  Calhoun 
were  no  longer  upon  the  arena  of  public  action.  Those 
who  had  taken  their  places  possessed  but  little  of  the 
wisdom  with  which  these  great  statesmen  had  showed 
themselves  to  be  endowed.  General  Cass,  one  of  the 
few  men  at  that  time  in  Congress  that  had  either  suffi 
cient  power  as  a  parliamentary  speaker,  or  sufficient 
weight  of  character  to  render  innocuous  the  elements  of 
mischief  then  at  work,  was,  at  this  particular  moment, 
neither  so  active  nor  observant  as  usual,  by  reason  of  a 
severe  domestic  misfortune  which  had  just  fallen  upon 
him,  and  which  I  personally  know  to  have  much  de 
pressed  his  spirits  and  enfeebled  his  energies.  Others 
there  were  in  the  national  councils  from  whom  a  far 
wiser  and  more  conservative  course  was  to  have  been  ex 
pected  at  this  crisis,  but  who  had,  in  the  Kansas-Nebras 
ka  struggle,  strangely  disappointed  the  public  hopes.  Mr. 
Badger,  of  North  Carolina,  honest,  enlightened,  and  pa 
triotic,  a  learned  jurist,  a  calm  and  methodical  debater, 
who  had  been,  during  all  his  antecedent  life,  remarkable 
for  his  moderation  and  forbearance,  had  for  a  moment 
joined  the  extremists  of  the  South  in  giving  his  high 
sanction  to  a  rupture  of  the  compact  of  1850 ;  while  Mr. 
Bell,  of  Tennessee,  always  able,  but  most  generally,  from 
a  certain  modesty  of  temperament,  a  little  slow  and  inde 
cisive  in  his  movements,  had  at  this  time  been  seen  to 
exert  more  than  his  habitual  energy,  had  both  zealous 
ly  and  manfully  confronted  all  who  showed  themselves 
to  be  inclined  to  measure  swords  with  him,  and  had 
fearlessly  and  vigorously  essayed  to  throttle  the  monster 

I 


194  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

of  sectionalism  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  ere  yet,  like 
Eolus,  he  should  succeed  in  unchaining  all  the  winds  of 
heaven  once  more,  which  had  been  now  for  nearly  four 
years  quietly  sleeping  in  their  caves.  But  Mr.  Toombs 
was  there,  that  Mirabeau  of  the  South,  fervid,  impas 
sioned,  eloquent,  bold,  defiant,  arrogant,  high-souled,  and 
generous,  but  self-reliant,  dogmatical,  and  reckless — bet 
ter  fitted  than  any  man  I  have  yet  seen  to  conjure  up  a 
sudden  storm  of  popular  excitement,  but  sadly  deficient 
in  that  calmness  of  soul  so  indispensable  to  the  attain 
ment  of  nearly  all  great  public  ends ;  and  beside  him 
stood  others,  who,  though  perchance  not  possessed  alto 
gether  of  equal  power  in  discussion  or  equal  audacity  of 
spirit,  were  yet  able  to  lend  considerable  aid  in  such  a 
confused  struggle  as  was  then  going  forward. 

I  have  alluded  to  Mr.  Calhoun  as  one  of  those  whose 
decease  had  deprived  the  public  councils  of  a  man  who 
would  not  at  this  conjuncture,  had  he  been  living,  have 
lent  his  great  powers,  and,  if  possible,  still  greater  person 
al  weight  and  influence,  to  the  side  of  agitation  and  dis 
cord.  I  feel  that  I  speak  advisedly  on  this  subject.  A 
few  months  subsequent  to  the  death  of  this  extraordinary 
man  in  1850,  General  James  Hamilton,  of  South  Caroli 
na,  one  of  his  most  trusted  friends,  and  who  had  much 
familiar  conyersation  with  Mr.  Calhoun  a  few  days  only 
before  he  ceased  to  live,  published,  about  twelve  months 
thereafter,  a  long  and  interesting  letter,  in  which  he  em 
phatically  denied  that  Mr.  Calhoun,  had  he  continued 
alive,  would  have  yielded  his  sanction  to  that  scheme  of 
rebellion  against  the  national  government  which  others 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN.  195 

were  at  the  very  moment  of  the  publication  of  this  im 
portant  letter  so  indiscreetly  and  causelessly  attempting ; 
and  I  can  not  but  believe  that  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  never 
claimed  for  the  South  aught  but  that  she  "  should  be  let 
alone"  who  had  even  refused  his  assent  to  the  proposi 
tion  made  by  General  Jackson,  during  his  last  official 
term,  to  interfere  to  some  extent  with  the  freedom  of 
mail  communications,  avowedly  with  a  view  to  preventing 
the  circulation  through  the  slaveholding  regions  of  incen 
diary  documents,  would  neither  have  given  his  sanction  to 
the  infamous  Lecompton  Constitution,  fastened,  or  rather 
attempted  to  be  fastened,  upon  the  necks  of  a  free  people, 
without  their  consent  and  in  undeniable  opposition  to 
their  wishes ;  nor  would  so  sober-minded  and  circumspect 
a  man  as  Mr.  Calhoun  have  been  found,  in  1861,  co-oper 
ating  with  those  inconsiderate  and  ill-judging  Southern 
members  of  Congress  who  abandoned  their  seats  merely 
because  a  presidential  election  had  taken  place,  for  the 
result  of  which  they  had  made  themselves  chiefly  respon 
sible,  before  even  any  overt  act  violative  of  the  rights  of 
the  South  had  been  either  perpetrated  or  been  even  dis 
tinctly  menaced ;  when  they  knew  that  President  Lincoln 
had  been  elected  only  by  a  plurality  of  popular  votes ; 
when  they  were  also  bound  to  know  that  they  had  it  in 
their  power,  by  acting,  faithfully  and  cordially  with  their 
Northern  political  allies,  infallibly  to  defeat  all  hostile 
legislation  which  might  be  attempted  against  them  or 
those  whom  they  represented  for  the  four  years  which 
were  next  to  pass  away  ere  another  presidential  election 
would  occur ;  and  that  it  was  almost  morally  certain  that 
in  1860  the  reins  of  authority  would  be  placed  in  the 


196  SCYLLA-AND  CHAEYBDIS. 

hands  of  a  man  elected  conjointly  by  Southern  votes  and 
those  of  individuals  friendly  to  Southern  interests.  And 
I  will  now  announce  my  confident  opinion  that  John  C. 
Calhoun,  had  he  survived  until  the  eventful  year  of  1861, 
would  have  both  seen  and  exposed  the  folly  of  going  into 
so  unequal  and  needless  a  war  as  that  which  has  just 
closed,  and  especially  without  making  some  adequate 
preparation  for  all  the  terrible  exigencies  which  were 
sure  to  arise  therein ;  that  he  would  never  have  sanc 
tioned  the  conduct  of  the  suddenly  improvised  Montgom 
ery  government  in  ordering  so  rashly  the  opening  of  the 
bloody  tragedy  which  has  since  been  so  memorably  con 
nected  with  the  spilling  of  fraternal  blood  at  Charleston ; 
that  he  would  have  been  thoroughly  nauseated  with  that 
compound  of  weakness,  and  corruption,  and  servility  in 
the  form  of  a  cabinet  which  Mr.  Davis  so  stupidly  called 
around  him,  and  retained,  in  spite  of  general  public  senti 
ment  crying  aloud  against  those  who  constituted  it,  until 
there  was  no  longer  any  hope  for  the  cause  with  which 
they  stood  officially  associated ;  that  he  would  have  in 
dignantly  condemned  the  measures  of  confiscation,  con 
scription,  forcible  impressment,  the  suspension  of  habeas 
corpus,  'the  proclamation  of  martial  law,  and  numerous 
enactments  besides,  adopted  by  a  slavish  congressional 
majority,  in  order  to  build  up  and  arm  with  despotic 
power  an  over  -  ambitious  and  incompetent  executive 
chief;  that  he  would  still  more  strongly  have  condemned 
the  general  spread  of  corruption  into  all  the  departments, 
both  principal  and  subordinate,  of  Confederate  trust ;  that 
he  would  not  have  hesitated,  had  he  been  destined  to  oc 
cupy  a  seat  in  either  of  the  houses  of  the  Confederate 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN.  197 

Congress,  to  rebuke  in  a  style  of  decorous  courtesy,  but 
yet  with  true  Roman-like  sternness  and  severity,  the  rank 
and  ever-increasing  abuses  of  power  which  he  would  have 
plainly  seen  to  be  going  on — the  obstinate  retention  in 
the  highest  official  stations  of  men  of  depraved  morals, 
and  of  the  lowest  and  most  profligate  habitudes,  the 
heartless  persecution  of  the  most  meritorious  military 
commanders,  and  the  elevation  over  their  heads  of  those 
whose  single  claim  to  promotion  was  a  groveling  and  ab 
ject  devotion  to  their  executive  chief;  and  lastly,  that 
Mr.  Calhoun,  that  honest  and  inflexible  supporter  of  the 
rights  of  the  states  and  of  the  essential  muniments  of  free 
dom,  would  not  have  failed  to  denounce  with  all  the  pow 
er  which  a  pure  heart,  a  cultivated  intellect,  and  a  lordly 
spirit  could  confer,  the  wretched  and  fantastical  scheme 
of  setting  on  foot  in  the  ancient  and  time-honored  city  of 
Eichmond  an  irresponsible  military  despotism  which,  con 
joined  with  the  foul  and  bloody  tyranny  now  essaying 
to  establish  itself  upon  the  bosom  of  downtrodden  Mex 
ico,  and  the  already  organized  and  wide-sweeping  impe 
rial  government  of  France,  it  was  presumptuously  and 
madly  hoped  would,  after  a  while,  prominently  partici 
pate  in  dominating  over  the  wide-spread  affairs  of  both 
the  eastern  and  western  hemispheres. 

But  it  is  a  little  too  early  for  me  to  descant  upon  these 
topics;  let  me  offer  a  few  additional  observations  upon 
the  immediate  consequences  arising  from  the  adoption  of 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. 

I  shall  decline  the  presentation  of  any  detailed  account 
of  the  multiplied  efforts  which  were  now  made,  both  in  • 
certain  states  of  New  England  and  in  several  of  the  cot- 


198  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

ton-growing  states  of  the  South,  to  obtain  mastery  upon 
the  new  arena  of  contention  which  had  been  opened  to 
them,  so  unwisely,  on  the  sunset  side  of  the  Father  of 
Waters.  I  have  no  taste  for  depicturing  the  schemes  of 
hot-headed  and  unreasoning  sectionalists,  whether  located 
in  the  famed  land  of  the  Pilgrims,  or  amid  the  fair  savan 
nas  of  the  South,  or  the  teeming  alluvial  regions  of  the 
far  Southwest.  A  sober  and  thoughtful  posterity  will,  I 
fancy,  feel  but  little  interest  in  the  operations  of  "New 
England  Emigrant  Aid  Societies,"  or  in  the  silly  and 
lawless  expeditions  carried  on  in  Kansas  under  the  au 
thority  and  auspices  of  the  "Blue  Lodges,"  the  "Social 
Bands,"  the  "  Sons  of  the  South,"  or  any  other  grim  and 
horrible  form  of  " Border  Ruffianism"  Who  first  un- 
pardonably  shed  the  blood  of  brothers  upon  the  soil  of 
the  disputed  territory ;  who  afterward  became  most  re 
nowned  as  the  unnatural  conflict  proceeded,  either  in 
slaying  in  open  fight,  in  the  perpetration  of  covert  mur 
der,  in  the  burning  of  infant  towns  and  villages,  in  the 
wholesale  destruction  of  new-founded  rural  settlements ; 
whether  ex-senator  David  R  Atchison,  or  the  now  world- 
renowned  Ossawatomie  Brown,  or  perchance  some  other 
of  the  numerous  armed  representatives  of  the  "  antago 
nistic  elements"  "of  our  death-impregned  Federal  Consti 
tution,  is  to  be  transmitted  to  future  generations  as  the 
chief  hero  of  this  disgraceful  "Kansas  war,"  the  accounts 
which  have  reached  us  thus  far  are  too  vague  and  con 
flicting  to  enable  any  one  not  already  overboiling  with 
partisan  venom  positively  to  determine.  The  successive 
advents  of  territorial  gubernatorial  missionaries  of  concili 
ation,  dispatched,  one  after  another,  by  the  perplexed 


PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION  OF  1856.  199 

and  vacillating  Pierce  (whose  ominous  comings  and  go 
ings  seem  now,  to  our  organs  of  mental  vision,  more  like 
the  changeful  and  flitting  representations  of  a  phantasma 
goria  than  the  sober  realities  which  the  historic  muse 
would  gladly  garner  up  and  preserve  for  the  inspection 
of  future  generations),  it  is  best  for  us  all  should  sink  at 
once  into  obscurity.  The  only  fact  which  it  is  essential 
now  to  notice  is,  that  the  scenes  of  contention  in  Kansas 
which  have  been  thus  glancingly  referred  to  continued 
until  the  election  and  inauguration  of  Mr.  Buchanan. 
This  gentleman  had  been  nominated  over  Pierce  by  the 
National  Democratic  Convention  which  assembled  in  the 
city  of  Cincinnati  in  the  month  of  June,  1856,  in  spite  of 
the  most  profuse  and  disgraceful  use  of  official  patron 
age,  in  order  to  secure  the  reign  of  the  intervention  policy 
by  a  president  solemnly  pledged  to  non-intervention.  I 
believe  it  to  be  strictly  true,  as  I  heard  directly  from  the 
lips  of  Mr.  Buchanan  afterward,  that  the  presidential 
nomination  on  this  occasion  sought  him,  not  he  it.  There 
were  now  two  other  presidential  candidates  in  the  field, 
Millard  Fillmore  and  John  C.  Fremont.  Mr.  Buchanan 
was  chosen  President,  after  a  very  fierce  and  excited 
struggle,  by  a  plurality  of  popular  votes  only,  the  follow 
ing  being  the  result  of  the  canvass:  Buchanan,  1,838,169 
votes ;  Fremont,  1,341,264 ;  and  Mr.  Fillmore,  the  Amer 
ican  or  Union  candidate,  874,534. 

I  shall  reserve  the  observations  which  I  deem  it  prop 
er  to  make  upon  Mr.  Buchanan's  eventful  administration 
to  another  chapter,  and  bring  forward  at  present  some 
other  matters  needful  to  be  considered  in  connection 
with  subsequent  events. 


200  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

It  is  now  far  too  plain  a  proposition  to  be  denied,  that 
the  South,  in  order  to  guard  her  slaveholding  interests 
from  immolation,  should  have  thrown  her  whole  presiden 
tial  vote  to  Fillmore  in  the  contest  which  had  just  termin 
ated.  This  personage  was  well  known  to  be  a  man  of  the 
utmost  sobriety  of  spirit,  of  unsurpassed  honesty  of  pur 
pose,  thoroughly  loyal  to  the  Constitution  and  all  its 
well-known  guarantees.  Though  conscientiously  opposed 
to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  vacant  territories  by 
congressional  enactment,  he  was  equally  opposed  to  the 
exclusion  of  it  therefrom  by  a  similar  instrumentality. 
In  other  words,  he  was  a  true  non-interventionist  of  the 
Clay,  Webster,  and  Cass  school,  and  had  given  evidences 
during  his  former  administration  of  his  fearless  devotion 
to  principle,  and  his  willingness  to  face  all  the  dangers 
of  anti-slavery  opposition,  which  ought  to  have  strongly 
commended  him  to  the  hearty  support  alike  of  the  South 
ern  slaveholding  interest  and  of  the  true  friends  of  na 
tional  repose.  Immediately  on  reaching  the  United 
States  from  a  European  tour,  he  delivered  in  the  city  of 
Albany  the  following  noble  harangue,  which  is,  in  my 
judgment,  in  tone  and  spirit,  worthy  of  the  best  days  of 
Athens  and  of  Eome : 

(CWe  see  a  political  party  presenting  candidates  for 
the  presidency  and  vice-presidency,  selected  for  the  first 
time  from  the  free  states  alone,  with  the  avowed  purpose 
of  electing  these  candidates  by  the  suffrages  of  one  part 
of  the  Union  only,  to  rule  over  the  whole  United  States. 
Can  it  be  possible  that  those  who  are  engaged  in  such  a 
measure  can  have  seriously  reflected  upon  the  conse 
quences  which  must  inevitably  follow  in  case  of  success  ? 


MR.  FILLMORE'S  SPEECH.  201 

Can  they  have  the  madness  or  the  folly  to  believe  that 
our  Southern  brethren  would  submit  to  be  governed  by 
such  a  chief  magistrate  ?  Would  he  be  required  to  fol 
low  the  same  rule  prescribed  by  those  who  elected  him 
in  making  his  appointments  ?  If  a  man  living  south  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line  be  not  worthy  to  be  president 
or  vice-president,  would  it  be  proper  to  select  one  from 
the  same  quarter  as  one  of  his  cabinet  council,  or  to  rep 
resent  the  nation  in  a  foreign  country,  or,  indeed,  to  col 
lect  the  revenue,  or  administer  the  laws  of  the  United 
States?  If  not,  what  new  rule  is  the  President  to  adopt 
in  selecting  men  for  office  that  the  people  themselves  dis 
card  in  selecting  him?  These  are  serious,  but  practical 
questions;  and,  in  order  to  appreciate  them  fully,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  turn  the  tables  upon  ourselves.  Sup 
pose  that  the  South,  having  the  majority  of  the  electoral 
'votes,  should  declare  that  they  would  only  have  slave 
holders  for  president  and  vice-president,  and  should  elect 
such  by  their  exclusive  suffrages  to  rule  over  us  at  the 
North,  do  you  think  we  would  submit  to  it?  No,  not 
for  a  moment.  And  do  you  believe  that  your  Southern 
brethren  are  less  sensitive  on  this  subject  than  you  are, 
or  less  jealous  of  their  rights  ?  If  you  do,  let  me  tell  you 
that  you  are  mistaken.  And,  therefore,  you  must  see 
that,  if  this  sectional  party  succeeds,  it  leads  inevitably 
to  the  destruction  of  this  beautiful  fabric,  reared  by  our 
forefathers,  cemented  by  their  blood,  and  bequeathed  to 
us  as  a  priceless  inheritance." 

Doubtless  these  clear  and  manly  declarations  of  prin 
ciple  by  Mr.  Fillmore  did  secure  •him,  at  the  South,  a 
large  share  of  popular  approval ;  and  had  the  public  men 

12 


202  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

of  that  section  been  in  strict  unison  with  the  more  mod 
erate  and  conservative  doctrines  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  is 
known  very  uniformly  indeed  (with  perhaps  the  excep 
tion  of  a  portion  of  what  was  embodied  by  him  in  his  last 
elaborate  speech  touching  the  admission  of  California)  to 
have  declared  that  all  that  we  asked  for  the  South  was 
that  she  should  be  let  alone,  it  seems  certain  that  this  wor 
thy  son  of  the  Empire  State  must  have  been  chosen  pres 
ident.  If  a  consummation  so  desirable  had  been  effected, 
a  repetition  of  the  golden  era  which  has  been  already  de 
scribed  might  have  been  confidently  anticipated,  and,  in 
all  probability,  the  noxious  weed  of  sectionalism,  which 
had  sprung  up  and  attained  such  rank  and  luxuriant 
growth  during  the  evil  days  of  the  administration  then 
just  closing,  would  never  have  been  able  to  show  its 
night-shade  foliage  above  ground. 

That  sectionalism  in  the  North  had  well-nigh  lost  its 
vitality  when  Mr.  Pierce  came  into  office,  is  unequivocally 
attested  by  no  less  a  personage  than  Jefferson  Davis  him 
self,  who,  when  taking  a  tour  of  observation  through  the 
New  England  States  during  the  early  part  of  his  eccen 
trical  and  oppressive  administration  of  the  Department 
of  War,,  sojourning,  as  he  did,  for  weeks  at  several  places 
on  his  route,  in  deliberate  speeches,  much  commended  by 
confiding  Union  men  at  the  time,  declared  that  political 
abolition  was  then  nowhere  visible ;  that  the  virus  of  anti- 
slavery  had  altogether  ceased  to  permeate  the  veins  and 
arteries  of  the  body  politic ;  and  that  the  slaveholding 
population  of  the  South  might  safely  rely  in  future  upon 
the  organic  shield  provided  in  behalf  of  their  peculiar 
property  interests  by  the  wise  and  far-seeing  framers  of 


FKEE-SOILISM  SUBSIDING.  203 

the  Federal  Constitution.  Nor  were  these  mere  fanciful 
conjectures  of  the  late  High-priest  of  Secession  of  the  far 
Southwest,  for  I  do  myself  well  recollect  that,  at  the  pe 
riod  to  which  I  am  now  referring,  most  of  the  leading 
Free-soil  newspaper  organs  had  altogether  ceased  to  agi 
tate  the  slavery  question  in  their  columns,  and  several 
United  States  senators  from  the  North,  who  in  1850  had 
made  fierce  and  rampant  war  upon  the  measures  of 
compromise,  and  upon  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  in  partic 
ular,  had  formally  avowed  their  full  acquiescence  in  all 
the  wise  and  salutary  enactments  just  mentioned.  But, 
as  before  hinted,  the  pro-slavery  champions  of  the  South, 
since  the  adoption  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  had  loca 
ted  themselves  upon  an  entirely  new  track  in  regard  to 
slavery ;  they  were  by  no  means  satisfied  now  with  be 
ing  left  undisturbed  by  their  Northern  fellow-citizens  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  and  they  had  determined  to  de 
mand  of  Congress  that  their  slaveholding  rights  should 
be  given  special  protection  by  the  legislation  of  that  body, 
the  boasted  guaranties  of  the  Constitution  being  no  lon 
ger  by  them  deemed  sufficient. 

I  have  said  that  it  was  a  new  track  which  these  gentle 
men  had  now  taken.  I  must  acknowledge  that  the  ab 
surd  and  impracticable  idea  of  congressional  protection 
for  slavery  in  the  territories  was  not  absolutely  of  novel 
origin,  since,  as  has  been  stated,  Mr.  Yance*y  had  made  his 
celebrated,  but  wholly  unsuccessful  experiment  in  this 
behalf,  upon  the  National  Democratic  Convention  of 
1848,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  had  afterward  gravely  re 
peated  this  experiment  in  1850,  when  the  compromise 
measures  were  under  discussion  in  the  Senate,  but  with 


204  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

a  similar  want  of  success.  That  this  was  the  grand  ob 
ject  which  the  political  leaders  of  the  South  held  in  view 
at  this  period  in  preferring  Mr.  Buchanan  to  Mr.  Fill- 
more,  was  more  or  less  indicated  during  the  session  of 
the  Democratic  Nominating  Convention  in  Cincinnati,  by 
the  new-blown  support  of  that  gentleman's  claims  to  be 
selected  as  the  presidential  candidate  of  the  Democratic 
party,  yielded  by  certain  well-known  supporters  of  seces 
sion  in  1850 ;  and  this  object  became  still  more  manifest 
in  the  imperious  demands  which  these  individuals  set  up 
in  the  sequel,  to  be  allowed  absolute  control  over  Mr.  Bu 
chanan's  action  in  regard  to  slavery  in  the  territories, 
and  to  use  the  power  which  they  boasted  of  having  be 
stowed  upon  him  as  an  effective  instrument  for  their 
well-matured  purpose  to  extend  slavery  by  all  the  force 
of  the  national  arm. 

The  American  party,  of  which  Mr.  Fillmore  was  the 
chosen  champion  and  exponent,  was  mainly  a  Union 
party,  and  avowed  undying  opposition  to  sectionalism  in 
any  form  which  it  might  assume.  Unfortunately  for  this 
party  and  for  the  country,  a  few  overheated  zealots  be 
longing  to  it  had  contrived,  in  several  of  the  states,  and 
especially  in  Virginia,  to  impart  to  it  a  sectarian  cast. 
Wherever  this  occurred,  of  course  this  party  had  been 
signally  defeated  in  the  local  elections  which  at  that  time 
took  place,  as  'it  well  deserved  to  have  been.  Every 
where,  though,  the  members  of  this  party  insisted  with 
equal  zeal  upon  that  particular  feature  of  its  creed  from 
which  its  corporate  name  had  been  derived:  they  con 
curred  in  believing  that  the  influx  of  persons  of  foreign 
birth  and  training  had  latterly  become  so  enormous  that 


AMERICAN  PARTY.  205 

there  was  serious  danger  that  all  the  distinctive  character 
istics  of  our  country  would  be  lost.  They  still  more  pain 
fully  apprehended  that,  if  full  political  rights  and  priv 
ileges  should  be  accorded  to  all  these  new-comers,  and 
especially  if  laws  should  continue  to  be  enacted  by  Con 
gress  which  held  out  the  most  seductive  rewards  to  all 
the  paupers  of  foreign  lands  to  come  to  our  shores,  the 
capacity  of  the  American  people  for  the  task  of  self-gov 
ernment  might  become  more  or  less  impaired,  and  great 
and  radical  mischiefs  be  seen  to  arise  from  the  presence 
and  overmastering  ascendency  of  so  large  a  number  of 
persons  in  indigent  circumstances,  and  of  imperfect  polit 
ical  education,  in  the  large  popular  elections  which  must 
always  be  expected  to  control,  in  a  greater  or  less  de 
gree,  the  operations  of  our  complex  governmental  ma 
chine.  This  may  or  may  not  have  been  an  erroneous 
notion.  Its  discussion  would  be  wholly  profitless  at  pres 
ent,  as  this  grave  question  has  been  already  definitely 
settled,  and,  in  all  probability,  settled  very  wisely  for  our 
country,  in  view  of  the  great  and  radical  social  changes 
which  have  lately  taken  place  in  the  states  of  the  South. 
But  I  have  one  observation  to  make  here,  for  which  I 
hope  I  shall  be  pardoned  by  the  late  vehement  cham 
pions  of  slavery  extension :  it  is  obvious  that  nothing  has 
tended  so  fatally  to  weaken  and  undermine  the  slave- 
holding  system  recently  existing  in  the  South  as  this 
very  foreign  element,  the  over -rapid  strengthening  of  which, 
the  American  party,  with  Mr.  Fillmore  at  its  head,  strug 
gled  honestly  to  prevent;  and  so  well  satisfied  had  the 
whole  South  become,  three  years  ago,  of  the  truth  of  this 
affirmation,  that  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  Mr.  Clement 


206  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

.  C.  Clay,  of  Alabama,  as  a  member  of  the  Confederate 
Congress,  formerly  a  most  unqualified  antagonist  of  the 
American  cause,  did  not  hesitate  to  bring  forward  a  leg 
islative  proposition  against  the  naturalization  of  foreign 
ers  in  the  Confederate  States  far  more  stringent  in  its 
terms  than  the  platform  of  the  American  party  was  ever 
by  its  bitterest  opponents  accused  of  being — which  prop 
osition,  I  am  prepared  to  assert,  upon  the  fullest  knowl 
edge  of  facts,  did  not  evoke  the  smallest  opposition  in 
either  House  of  the  legislative  body  referred  to,  or  in 
newspapers  wheresoever  printed,  in  any  part  of  the  South. 
In  looking  back  to  the  past,  it  is  really  not  at  all  incuri 
ous  to  observe  that  the  Hon.  Henry  A.  Wise,  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  electrical  popular  speakers  that  the 
South,  teeming  in  all  generations  with  gifted  orators,  has 
ever  produced,  at  the  close  of  his  memorable  canvass  for 
governor  of  the  Ancient  Dominion  about  this  period, 
standing  upon  the  steps  in  front  of  some  hotel  in  the  city 
of  Washington,  surrounded  by  a  vast  multitude  of  his 
then  admiring  friends,  poured  forth  an  exultant  oration 
over  the  signal  triumph  which  he  had  recently  achieved 
upon  the  soil  of  his  native  state  over  that  forlorn  and 
gloomy  -champion  of  JTnow-nothingism,  who  he  com 
plained  had  kept  his  visor  down  over  his  hideous  counte 
nance  on  every  occasion  where  he  had  met  him  in  com 
bat,  and  closing  with  a  glowing  peroration,  in  which  he 
declared  that  his  election  to  the  office  of  governor  would 
be  "the  death -knell  of  all  Pacific  Eailroad  schemes." 
Now  at  that  very  moment,  though  perhaps  he  did  not 
know  so  recondite  a  circumstance,  Mr.  Buchanan  had 
pledged  himself,  in  a  letter  printed  only  west  of  the 


PACIFIC  RAILWAY  NOW  A  FIXED  FACT.  207 

Kocky  Mountains  anterior  to  the  presidential  election, 
in  which  he  had  explicitly  declared  himself  in  favor  of 
the  early  establishment  of  this  great  highway  of  nations 
over  the  American  continent.  Had  this  usually  astute 
gentleman,  Governor  Wise,  been  able,  at  the  moment  that 
he  uttered  this  oracular  declaration,  to  descry  the  untold 
mysteries  of  the  future,  he  would  have  seen  that  the  very 
political  result  of  which  he  was  then  boasting  would,  in 
a  few  years,  by  increasing  the  relative  strength  of  the 
Northern  sectional  majority,  fatally  weaken  the  position 
of  the  Southern  portion  of  the  Union,  and  thus,  whether 
through  the  instrumentalities  of  peace  or  war,  impart  an 
irresistible  impetus  to  that  grand  scheme  of  internal  im 
provement  which,  I  venture  to  predict,  will  not  hereafter 
encounter  any  serious  opposition  from  enlightened  men 
on  either  side  of  the  renowned  line  of  separation  between 
the  North  and  the  South. 

Truly  man  proposeth,  and  God  disposetli ! 

Of  the  ^Republican  standard-bearers  and  political  plat 
form  of  1856  I  shall  on  this  occasion  have  but  little  to 
say.  The  newly-reorganized  Free-soil  party,  which  now 
for  the  first  time  appropriated  to  itself  the  designation 
which  has  been  subsequently  associated  with  so  many 
signal  political  victories,  as  well  as  with  other  grand 
events  which  have  attracted  such  profound  attention 
throughout  Christendom,  had  boldly  placed  itself  upon 
unmistakable  intervention  ground,  and  had  proclaimed  to 
the  world  that  "  the  Constitution  confers  sovereign  power 
over  the  territories  of  the  United  States  for  their  government ; 
and  that,  in  the  exercise  of  this  power,  it  is  both  the  right  and 
the  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  in  the  territories  those  twin 
relics  of  barbarism,  polygamy  and  slavery" 


208  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

With  Mr.  Dayton,  the  nominee  of  the  Eepublican  party 
for  the  vice-presidency,  I  became  acquainted  when  I  was 
myself  a  member  of  the  national  Senate,  and  I  am  pre 
pared  to  say  of  him  that  he  ever  impressed  me  most  fa 
vorably,  both  in  regard  to  his  intellectual  power  and  his 
general  temper  and  bearing,  alike  in  social  intercourse 
and  in  debate;  and  it  can  not  be  doubted  that,  had  he 
been  elevated  in  1856  to  the  second  office  in  the  govern 
ment,  he  would  have  shown  himself  altogether  equal  to 
the  duties  of  this  high  position. 

I  should,  for  certain  reasons,  be  inclined  to  be  absolute 
ly  silent  concerning  the  gentleman  who  had  become  at 
this  period  the  Eepublican  nominee  for  the  presidency, 
but  that  a  passing  notice  of  this  personage  can  be  hardly 
avoided  in  a  work  like  the  present',  and  but  for  the  addi 
tional  circumstance  that  he  has  since  become  a  prominent 
military  character,  whose  career  must  be  regarded  as  hav 
ing  more  or  less  influence  upon  the  general  concerns  of 
the  republic. 

Colonel  Fremont  came  into  the  United  States  Senate 
from  California  in  the  eventful  summer  of  1850,  as  one 
of  the  senators  elected  from  the  then  newly-admitted 
state  of  that  name.  He  occupied  a  seat  in  that  body 
only  some  seventeen  or  eighteen  days  altogether,  his  col 
league,  Dr.  William  M.  Gwin,  having,  with  his  accustom 
ed  good  fortune,  drawn  the  long  senatorial  term  for  the 
State  of  California,  while  Colonel  Fremont  had  drawn 
the  short  one.  The  latter  gentleman  was  not  fortunate 
enough  to  secure  his  own  re-election  to  the  elevated  sta 
tion  of  which  he  was  in  1850  for  a  brief  space  the  incum 
bent. 


COLONEL,  NOW  GENERAL  FREMONT.      209 

There  were  circumstances  existing  at  the  time,  and  es 
pecially  my  well-known  variance  with  Colonel  Benton, 
his  father-in-law,  which  interposed  insuperable  impedi 
ments  to  our  forming  a  personal  acquaintance,  at  least  in 
the  usual  way.  General  Fremont  and  myself  have  never 
yet  been  formally  introduced  to  each  other,  and  in  all 
probability  we  never  shall  be  hereafter.  I  certainly  had 
no  unkindness  individually  for  this  gentleman  when  we 
entered  the  Senate,  nor  have  I  a  particle  of  personal  ill- 
will  toward  him  at  the  present  moment.  When  the  pain 
ful  and  protracted  contest  between  this  gentleman  and 
Governor  Mason,  of  JSTew  Mexico,  was  pending,  and  a 
meeting  between  these  individuals  upon  the  field  of  honor 
was  confidently  expected  very  soon  to  occur,  at  the  earnest 
instance  of  a  very  worthy  gentleman  then  in  the  Senate, 
and  who  is  still  surviving,  I  had  ventured  to  interpose  in 
this  very  delicate  affair,  with  a  view  of  preventing,  if  prac 
ticable,  those  tragical  consequences  which  were  so  justly 
to  be  apprehended.  I  had  never  had  the  slightest  reason 
to  suspect  that  Colonel  Fremont,  as  he  was  then  called, 
cherished  feelings  of  personal  unkindness  for  myself, 
when,  on  the  last  night  of  the  congressional  session,  the 
following  very  curious  scene  occurred.  This  gentleman 
had  within  a  few  days  introduced  several  bills,  the  pro 
visions  of  which  involved,  as  I  could  not  but  believe,  val 
uable  mineral  interests  of  the  government,  which  bills,  I 
was  of  opinion,  should  they  become  laws,  would  be  infal 
libly  productive  of  great  public  detriment.  I  had  pre 
sented  a  firm  and  courteous  opposition  to  them,  as  others 
had  done,  and  they  had  been,  by  our  joint  efforts,  defeat 
ed  ;  when,  coming  to  my  seat,  he  accosted  me  politely  and 


210  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

invited  me  to  an  interview  outside  of  the  Senate,  which 
invitation  I  could  not  in  reason  refuse.  After  we  had 
passed  through  the  large  central  door  of  the  Senate-cham 
ber,  which  closed  after  us,  he  turned  to  me  and  said,  "Col 
onel  Benton  is  very  much  displeased  at  your  conduct  to 
night."  To  which  I  responded,  "I  regret  much  to  learn 
that  such  is  the  fact,  as  I  have  been  laboring  assiduously 
to  conciliate  that  eminent  personage  for  several  years." 
To  this  he  responded,  "  I  do  not  at  all  like  your  conduct 
myself,  nor  will  I  allow  you  to  interfere  with  my  Califor 
nia  concerns."  I  then  said,  "I  do  not  understand  how 
you  can  have  any  California  concerns  proper  to  become 
a  subject  of  legislative  action  in  the  Senate  in  the  consid 
eration  of  which  I  may  not  legitimately  participate.  Be 
sides,"  I  continued,  "Colonel,  you  must  know  that  I  in 
tend  in  all  matters  to  act  with  perfect  independence  in 
the  Senate,  without  the  least  regard  to  whether  you  and 
Colonel  Benton  are  offended  or  not ;"  and  subjoined,  "  I 
opine  that  you  have  waked  up  the  wrong  passenger.'1'1 
Upon  which  he  exclaimed,  "You  arc  no  gentleman!" 
On  the  utterance  of  this  insulting  language  I  struck  him. 
He  was  evidently  proceeding,  with  a  sufficient  display  of 
spirit,  to  return  the  blow,  when  two  senators  coming  out 
of  the  central  door  through  which  we  had  passed  inter 
fered  between  us  and  forcibly  threw  us  apart.  In  about 
an  hour  I  received  a  note  of  very  significant  import  from 
Colonel  Fremont,  to  which  I  wrote  an  assenting  response. 
Before  daylight  several  senatorial  friends  interfered  in 
the  affair,  demanded  the  simultaneous  withdrawal  of  both 
the  hostile  notes,  and  insisted  that  the  dispute  should  be 
altogether  dropped.  This  was  mutually  agreed  to,  and 


PEACE   BETTER  THAN  AVAR.  211 

I,  regarding  the  altercation  as  terminated,  proceeded  the 
next  day  to  my  own  distant  home  in  the  Southwest.  In 
about  two  weeks  thereafter  I  received  several  letters  from 
eminent  senatorial  friends,  informing  me  that,  subsequent 
tp  my  departure  from  Washington,  Colonel  Fremont  had 
issued  a  hand-bill  charging  me  with  having  instigated 
certain  newspaper  scribblers  to  ridicule  his  conduct  in 
the  transaction  described,  and  denouncing  me  for  this,  my 
supposed  conduct,  in  very  unmeasured  terms.  These 
friends  likewise  advised  me  to  let  the  matter  pass  by,  as 
they  did  not  consider  that  I  was  at  all  likely  to  suffer 
detriment  from  silence ;  and,  in  point  of  fact,  this  was  the 
course  pursued  by  me.  When,  several  years  after,  dur 
ing  the  presidential  contest  of  1856,  two  or  three  of  Col 
onel  Fremont's  Republican  supporters  in  San  Francisco 
called  upon  me  one  morning,  and  invited  my  attention  to 
an  editorial  article  which  had  just  made  its  appearance 
in  an  Ohio  paper,  accusing  their  candidate  of  having 
made  a  violent  personal  assault  upon  me  in  the  lobby  of 
the  Senate-chamber,  I  did  not  hesitate  to  deny  the  fact, 
and  they  being  of  opinion  that  the  circulation  of  this 
charge  would  do  him  injury  as  a  presidential  candidate, 
I  gave  them  a  written  certificate  denying  the  accusation, 
which  they  published  immediately. 

There  are  some  other  facts  of  a  different  character  con 
nected  with  the  presidential  contest  of  1856,  so  far  as  the 
same  had  its  progress  in  the  State  of  California,  of  far  su 
perior  interest  to  the  general  reader  than  those  which 
have  just  been  narrated. 

All  America  has  long  ago  heard  of  the  meritorious  and 
splendid  character  of  whom  I  have  now  to  record  some 


212  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

particulars  of  a  nature  to  impart  to  sober  reality  much  of 
the  brightness  and  attractiveness  of  romance.  General 
Edward  C.  Baker,  who  was  recently  an  honored  member 
of  the  United  States  Senate  from  one  of  the  youngest 
and  fairest  daughters  of  this  ocean-bound  confederacy  of 
states,  and  whose  untimely  death,  in  one  of  the  earliest 
battles  of  our  late  unhappy  civil  war,  all  the  admirers  of 
genius,  and  all  the  sympathizers  with  true  manliness  of 
soul,  must  profoundly  lament,  was  born  in  England,  at  a 
period  not  very  remote  from  the  commencement  of  the 
present  century.  He  came  to  the  United  States,  whether 
in  company  with  his  parents  or  under  the  care  of  some 
casual  protector,  when  yet  in  tender  years,  and  was  domi- 
ciliated  in  the  then  rapidly  growing  State  of  Illinois,  not 
far  from  the  celebrated  Ninian  Edwards,  who  lent  to  his 
unprovided  condition  the  tender  care  of  a  liberal  patron 
and  a  sage  admonitor.  Where  he  obtained  the  rudiments 
of  a  plain  English  education,  which  was  all  he  could  ever 
boast,  I  have  never  been  advised ;  but  the  faithful  tute 
lage  of  Governor  Edwards,  and  the  access  so  liberally 
granted  him  to  the  large  library  of  this  eminent  and  learn 
ed  person,  left  little  to  be  lamented  in  regard  to  the  want 
of  regular  academic  instruction.  Certain  it  is  that  at  a 
very  early  age  the  subject  of  this  notice  was  deemed  qual 
ified  to  practice  the  legal  profession,  and  that  in  a  very 
short  time  he  attained  such  ascendency  at  the  bar  of  his 
own  immediate  neighborhood  that  no  one  was  supposed 
at  all  able  to  compete  with  him.  He  became,  in  due  sea 
son,  a  representative  in  Congress,  and  successively  repre 
sented  two  distinct  congressional  districts  in  the  State  of 
Illinois.  When  the  Mexican  War  broke  out,  though  con- 


GENERAL   BAKER.  213 

demning  it  in  its  commencement  as  an  attack  upon  a  fee 
ble  and  neighboring  republic,  he  eagerly  enlisted  therein 
so  soon  as  he  found  that  its  prosecution  had  been  positive 
ly  resolved  on  by  those  in'power.  In  the  progress  of  the 
war  he  gained  much  eclat  as  a  laborious  and  efficient  of 
ficer,  but,  having  only  a  limited  opportunity  of  displaying 
his  ability  in  this  line  of  public  service,  he  established  no 
claims  to  that  extraordinary  renown  which  his  own  gen 
erous  ambition  prompted  him  most  warmly  to  desire.  At 
the  close  of  the  Mexican  War  he  migrated  to  California, 
and  located  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  where,  during 
the  month  of  February,  1854, 1  first  met  with  him,  and 
where  we  contracted  relations  of  reciprocal  kindness  and 
respect,  which  continued,  as  I  have  reason  to  believe,  on 
both  sides  for  some  time  after  our  personal  separation  by 
the  accidents  of  war. 

General  Baker,  when  I  encountered  him  first  on  the  dis 
tant  Pacific  coast,  was,  as  in  a  very  few  days  I  ascertain 
ed,  universally  recognized  as  altogether  the  most  eloquent 
speaker  at  the  California  bar,  and,  on  familiar  acquaint 
ance  with  him,  I  discovered  that  he  was  very  far  from 
being  merely  a  brilliant  and  fanciful  rhetorician,  for  I  re 
peatedly  heard  him,  both  then  and  afterward,  when  en 
gaged  in  the  argument  of  legal  causes  of  the  greatest  com 
plexity  and  difficulty,  and  never  did  I  find  him  at  all  un 
equal  to  the  occasion.  Whenever  a  difficult  case  was  to 
be  tried  even  in  parts  of  California  most  distant  from  his 
own  residence,  he  was  sought  for  with  the  greatest  eager 
ness,  and  oftentimes  with  a  most  unusual  display  of  emu 
lous  contention. 

During  the  last  year  of  my  four  years'  sojourn  in  Cali- 


214  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

fornia  the  second  organization  of  the  celebrated  Vigilance 
Committee  occurred,  in  regard  to  whose  proceedings  there 
was  at  one  time,  both  in  California  and  elsewhere,  much 
contrariety  of  opinion.  I  might  at  present  be  trusted  to 
speak  of  the  acts  of  this  anomalous  association,  and  might 
reasonably  expect  my  own  impartiality  to  be  confided  in 
by  all  who  have  any  special  feeling  on  this  subject,  as  I 
neither  took  part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  committee 
while  they  were  in  progress,  nor  essayed  in  any  way  to 
counteract  them.  I  shall  only  say  on  this  occasion, 
though,  that  I  am  convinced  that  I  had  ample  opportu 
nity  for  scrutinizing  the  motives  of  the  principal  individ 
uals  who  are  given  credit  for  setting  the  committee  on 
foot,  and  I  am  free  to  say  that  I  never  had  reason  to  ques 
tion  their  entire  purity  and  disinterestedness.  I  am  con 
fident  that  the  general  action  of  the  committee  was  pro 
ductive  of  decidedly  beneficial  effects,  though  it  would 
be  rather  absurd  to  question  that,  in  particular  instances, 
that  action  may  have  been  both  unjust  and  oppressive. 
Early  in  the  year  1856,  a  person  called  Corah,  a  French 
man  or  Italian  by  birth,  a  gambler  by  occupation,  and  an 
individual  of  most  debauched  habits  and  degraded  char 
acter,  committed  one  of  the  most  barefaced  and  wanton 
murders  ever  perpetrated  in  a  Christian  country  upon 
General  Eichison,  the  United  States  marshal  of  the  dis 
trict  in  which  San  Francisco  was  situated.  This  flagitious 
act,  occurring  in  a  city  where  crime  of  every  sort  was  far 
more  frequent  than  agreeable  to  upright  and  orderly  citi 
zens,  and  where  the  administration  of  criminal  justice  had 
for  some  years  been  notoriously  lax  and  ineffective,  was 
naturally  productive  of  intense  and  wide-spread  excite- 


VIGILANCE   COMMITTEE  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO.       215 

ment.  There  was  a  general  desire  manifested,  and  by 
tokens  most  unmistakable,  to  have  the  alleged  culprit 
subjected,  as  soon  as  possible,  to  exemplary  punishment. 
It  chanced  that  I  personally  knew  General  Baker  to  have 
been  offered  a  large  fee  both  to  prosecute  and  to  defend 
in  this  case.  He  appeared  eventually  on  the  side  of  the 
defense,  and,  after  a  most  intensely  interesting  trial,  the 
jury  being  unable  to  agree,  Corah  was  sent  back  to  pris 
on.  In  a  few  days  another  appalling  homicide  was  per 
petrated,  and,  in  this  instance,  a  man  who  had  been  once 
a  penitentiary  convict  (Casey  by  name)  had  assassinated, 
in  cold  blood,  a  most  popular  newspaper  editor,  a  gentle 
man  of  great  worth,  who  had  at  one  time  been  known  as 
an  eminently  public-spirited  and  liberal  banker.  The 
people  almost  immediately  arose  in  mass,  assumed  an  or 
ganized  character,  took  possession  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  arms  and  warlike  munitions  of  the  city,  broke  open 
the  public  prisons,  and  put  to  death  several  persons  who 
were  found  in  confinement,  in  addition  to  the  two  atro 
cious  criminals  already  referred  to.  The  city  was  pro 
claimed  to  be  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  all  municipal  au 
thority  was  declared  suspended.  Any  ordinary  man 
would  have  quailed  before  this  terrible  array.  Not  so 
General  Baker.  He  immediately  advertised  a  meeting 
of  the  citizens  upon  the  public  Plaza  of  the  city,  and  an 
nounced  his  intention  to  address  them.  At  the  stated 
time  and  place,  a  considerable  popular  assemblage  had  con 
vened  according  to  notice.  General  Baker  took  upon  him 
self  the  perilous  task  of  addressing  them.  I  never  saw 
him  calmer  or  more  collected  in  my  life.  At  first,  those 
who  were  present  listened  to  his  gentle  and  soothing 


216  SCYLLA  AND  CHAEYBDIS. 

strains  in  quiet,  and  apparently  with  attention.  Present 
ly  the  orator  began  to  employ  the  language  of  complaint 
and  indignation  in  regard  to  the  recent  proceedings  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee.  A  low  moaning  sound  was  in  a 
few  minutes  heard  in  the  very  centre  of  the  crowd,  which 
soon  became  a  wild  and  multitudinous  roar.  Fierce  men 
aces  were  distinctly  uttered  in  various  quarters.  After 
repeated  efforts  to  gain  attention,  the  audacious  and  gifted 
orator,  finding  it  impossible  that  a  calm  and  undisturbed 
hearing  could  be  secured,  retired  from  the  stand.  In  an 
hour  or  two  he  learned  from  his  friends  that  his  own 
life  was  in  danger,  and  he  left  the  city  of  San  Francisco 
for  Sacramento,  the  capital  of  the  state,  where  he  re 
mained  for  several  months  without  active  occupation  of 
any  kind.  I  chanced  to  visit  Sacramento  just  as  the 
presidential  contest  was  fairly  commencing,  and  General 
Baker  came  to  see  me.  He  told  me  that  he  designed  en 
tering  into  the  canvass,  but  frankly  disclosed  several 
causes  of  embarrassment  which  were  at  the  time  giving 
him  annoyance.  He  said  that,  being  a  Whig,  he  should 
be  pleased  to  support  Mr.  Fillmore,  but  he  could  not,  as 
&  foreigner  born,  he  thought,  support  a  presidential  candi 
date  nominated  by  the  American  party ;  that  he  had  been 
contending  with  the  Democratic  party  all  his  life,  and, 
therefore,  he  could  not  decently  cast -his  suffrage  for  Mr. 
Buchanan ;  that  he  had  no  special  partiality  for  General 
Fremont,  and  was  by  no  means  an  approver  of  the  ex 
treme  Free-soil  creed ;  but  that,  upon  the  whole,  having 
resolved  not  to  be  idle  at  such  a  crisis,  he  thought  he 
should  espouse  the  Eepublican  cause,  and  exert  himself 
actively  in  its  support.  So  indeed  he  did ;  for  several 


GENERAL  BAKER  AS  AN  ORATOR.  217 

weeks  thereafter,  in  traversing  the  state,  I  found  at  va 
rious  points  that  General  Baker  had  either  preceded  me, 
was  expected  to  appear  at  the  place  which  I  had  already 
reached  in  a  few  days,  or,  as  once  or  twice  happened, 
he  was  actually  at  the  place  of  holding  a  public  de 
bate  at  the  same  time  that  I  was.  He  spoke  almost 
every  day,  and  to  immense  crowds,  in  almost  every  part 
of  the  state,  and  with  prodigious  effect  every  where. 
Toward  the  close  of  his  very  brilliant  campaign  the  fame 
of  his  wondrous  achievements  readied  San  Francisco, 
where  a  large  majority  of  those  whose  hostility  had 
driven  him  into  banishment  were  ardent  supporters  of 
Fremont.  Immediately  such  a  revulsion  in  popular  feel 
ing  occurred  as  I  presume  never  took  place  before,  save 
in  the  memorable  case  of  Cicero,  called  back  to  Kome  by 
the  unanimous  voice  of  the  populace  only  a  few  months 
after  Clodius  had  persuaded  them  to  drive  him  into  ex 
ile.  The  whole  Kepublican  party  in  San  Francisco  .con 
curred  in  inviting  the  leading  advocate  of  their  cause, 
but  whose  life  six  months  before  would  have  been  deem 
ed  but  a  just  sacrifice  to  a  furious  popular  resentment, 
to  return  to  their  midst,  and  deliver  one  of  his  soul-stir 
ring  harangues  in  their  hearing.  He  came  accordingly, 
and  seldom  has  such  an  imposing  ovation  been  tender 
ed  to  any  man.  He  ascended  the  stand  prepared  to  be 
occupied  by  himself,  and  gave  utterance  to  one  of  the 
most  overwhelming  popular  harangues  that  has  ever 
been  any  where  listened  to.  A  few  months  later,  he 
was  invited  to  the  Territory  of  Oregon,  to  take  part  in 
the  excited  popular  contest  there  then  in  progress.  He 
complied  with  this  invitation,  went  to  Oregon,  delivered 

K 


218  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

some  twenty  or  thirty  speeches,  and  was  almost  immedi 
ately  thereafter  chosen  to  represent  the  new  Pacific  state 
in  the  national  Senate,  where  he  soon  took  a  prominent 
part  in  the  proceedings  of  Congress;  and  then,  in  a  few 
months  more,  the  brilliant  orator,  the  ardent  patriot,  the 
gallant  soldier,  disappeared  forever  from  the  view  of  men 
amid  the  smoke  and  toil  of  battle. 


PRESIDENTIAL  CONTEST  OF   1856.  219 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Some  farther  Notice  of  the  "Irrepressible  Conflict"  Theory. — Analysis 
of  the  Condition  of  Parties  at  the  Time  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Inaugura 
tion. — Statement  of  the  Election  Kesults  during  the  first  Year  of  his 
Administration.  —  Historic  Kecital  of  some  important  Facts  which 
occurred  during  the  Summer  of  1857,  anterior  to  Mr.  Buchanan's  suc 
cumbing  to  the  Dictation  of  the  Secession  Leaders. — Efforts  to  reani 
mate  his  Courage  made  at  that  Period,  all  of  which  signally  failed. — 
Kecital  of  Particulars  connected  with  the  Lecompton  Struggle  in  Con 
gress. — Some  Scenes,  both  amusing  and  painful,  which  at  that  time  had 
their  progress  in  Washington. — Remarkable  banqueting  Scene,  in  which 
Mr.  Seward  bore  the  principal  Part. — Last  Interview  between  Mr.  Bu 
chanan  and  the  Author,  in  which  some  startling  Revelations  were  made. 

THE  fancied  "irrepressible  conflict  of  antagonistic  ele 
ments  imbedded  in  our  complex  frame  of  government," 
if  such,  a  necessary  and  inevitable  conflict  ever  had  an 
existence,  must  be  recognized  as  having  displayed  itself 
first  to  the  public  view,  in  a  distinct  and  menacing  form, 
about  the  year  1835,  when  the  first  abolition  associations 
were  formed  in  England,  and  in  the  Northern  States  of 
the  American  Union,  for  the  eradication  of  African  Slav 
ery  wheresoever  it  had  gained  footing,  and  especially  in 
the  Southern  States  of  the  Union,  where,  wisely  or  un 
wisely,  our  fathers  had  yielded  to  it,  in  all  the  states  at 
least,  as  no  one  denied  until  recently,  organic  guarantees 
of  protection ;  which  conflict  must  be  supposed  to  have 
farther  developed  itself  during  the  eventful  thirteen 
years  which  intervened  between  1835  and  1848,  when 


220  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

non-intervention  became  a  fundamental  principle  of  the 
National  Democratic  creed ;  which  would  seem  to  have 
been  held  for  a  few  years  in  a  state  of  feeble  and  harm 
less  suppression  under  the  firm  and  sage  administration 
of  Millard  Fillmore ;  and  to  have  enjoyed  another  season 
of  temporary  and  feverish  vigor  in  consequence  of  the  im 
politic  introduction  in  Congress  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill,  and  the  maniacal  administration  of  Mr.  Pierce,  which 
daringly  aimed  to  consolidate,  extend,  and  perpetuate 
African  slavery  by  incessant  agitation,  and  by  the  cor 
rupt  distribution  of  official  patronage  among  the  avowed 
champions  of  free  soil  in  the  North,  whose  opposition  it 
was  vainly  hoped  to  buy  up  and  terminate.  And  now 
a  second  opportunity  was  presented  of  suppressing  the 
outbreaking  lawlessness  of  sectional  faction,  both  in  the 
North  and  in  the  South,  by  returning  to  the  constitution 
al  pathways  so  plainly  marked  out  by  the  compromise 
leaders  of  1850,  and  the  grand  conservative  principles  of 
mutual  forbearance  and  reciprocal  justice  embodied  in 
the  Federal  Constitution.  Mr.  Buchanan  had  triumphed 
in  the  presidential  election  of  1856.  The  united  vote  of 
the  Democratic  and  American  parties  in  that  election 
constituted  a  decided  majority  of. the  whole  popular  vote 
of  the  nation.  It  was  evident  that  the  great  body  of 
voters  who  had  supported  Fillmore  in  that  contest  would 
be  ready  to  co-operate  heartily  with  the  new  administra 
tion,  if  that  administration  should  show  itself  true  to  the 
principles  of  finality  and  non-intervention  upon  which  Mr. 
Buchanan  himself  had  professed  to  accept  the  high  ex 
ecutive  station  into  which  he  was  in  a  few  days  to  be  in 
ducted.  Between  the  period  of  his  being  chosen  presi- 


MR.  BUCHANAN'S  INAUGURATION.  221 

dent  and  the  day  of  his  official  inauguration,  the  public 
mind  was  filled  with  intense  curiosity  as  to  the  course  of 
policy  which  the  new  president  might  ultimately  adopt. 
There  was  much  speculation  afloat  also  in  reference  to 
the  persons  whom  he  might  call  around  him  as  members 
of  his  cabinet.  Sound,  practical  statesmen  earnestly 
hoped  that  he  would  be  more  wise  in  the  selection  of  his 
cabinet  advisers  than  Mr.  Pierce  had  been,  and  that  there 
would  be  neither  sectionalist,  nor  local  demagogue,  nor 
political  changeling,  nor  concealed  abolitionist,  hypocrit 
ically  professing  to  be  a  genuine  States-right  Democrat, 
to  be  found  in  close  official  alliance  with  the  newly-made 
president.  A  letter  appeared  about  this  time  in  the 
newspapers  over  the  signature  of  A.  G.  Brown,  of  Missis 
sippi,  a  gentleman  of  very  extreme  views  upon  the  slav 
ery  question,  and  who  had  been  an  ardent  advocate  of 
disunion  in  1851,  which  described  an  interview  which  he 
had  just  held  with  Mr.  Buchanan  at  his  own  residence  in 
Pennsylvania ;  which  letter  was  not  a  little  startling  in 
some  of  its  statements,  considering  Mr.  Brown's  own  po 
litical  antecedents,  his  known  eager  desire  for  the  forcible 
extension  of  slavery  into  the  territories  by  congressional 
instrumentality,  and  the  interpretation  winch  he  was  un 
derstood  to  have  affixed  to  Mr.  Calhoun's  political  teach 
ings.  This  letter  concluded  with  the  following  statement 
in  reference  to  Mr.  Buchanan :  "  In  my  judgment,  he  is  as 
worthy  of  Southern  confidence  and  Southern  votes  as  ever  Mr. 
Calhoun  was." 

The  inauguration  scene  occurred  upon  the  4th  day  of 
March,  1857,  and  James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  was 
proclaimed  President,  and  John  C.  Breckenridge  Vice- 


222  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

President  of  the  United  States  of  America.  Mr.  Bu 
chanan's  inaugural  address,  with  very  slight  exceptions, 
was  a  highly  unexceptionable  document.  It  embodied 
sound  national  views  in  clear  and  forcible  diction,  and 
was  admirably  received  by  the  country.  Scarcely  a 
whisper  of  disapproval  or  of  distrust  was  any  where 
breathed.  The  Southern  slaveholding  class,  ever  more 
conservative  in  their  views  and  feelings  than  the  noisy 
and  shallow  demagogues  in  the  two  houses  of  Congress 
and  elsewhere,  who  have  for  twenty  years  past  put  them 
selves  forward  as  its  special  and  exclusive  champions, 
was  entirely  satisfied  with  Mr.  Buchanan's  solemn  assur 
ance  that  no  unconstitutional  infraction  of  their  rights 
would  receive  his  sanction.  The  Free-soil  faction,  so  re 
cently  and  so  signally  defeated,  seemed  well-nigh  crushed 
out  of  existence,  and  its  leaders  appeared  to  be  every 
where  meditating  its  formal  disbandment.  The  Ameri 
can  party  were  prepared  enthusiastically  to  rally  to  the 
support  of  an  administration  which  stood  pledged  to  pur 
sue  a  course  of  policy  which  they  did  not  doubt  would 
renew  that  delightful  era  of  repose  and  general  fraternal 
feeling  in  which  they  had  so  much  rejoiced  while  Mr. 
Fillmore  had  occupied  the  presidential  chair.  The  fierce 
sectional  leaders  of  the  South  saw  plainly  that  this  was 
not  altogether  a  favorable  moment  to  originate  the  disor 
ganizing  movements  which  some  of  them  had  long  medi 
tated,  and  confidently  hoped  in  the  end,  either  by  adroit 
persuasion  or  by  thundering  menaces  of  opposition,  or  by 
both  of  these  combined,  they  might  be  yet  able  to  mould 
Mr.  Buchanan  to  their  purposes,  whom  they  took  care  to 
remind  very  early  that  he  had  owed  his  election  to  the 


MR.  BUCHANAN  AS  A  NON-INTERVENTIONIST.     223 

presidency  mainly  to  their  management  and  support. 
The  general  condition  of  popular  feeling  in  the  country, 
as  well  as  the  relative  state  of  political  parties,  was  very 
soon  made  manifest  in  certain  important  state  elections 
which  took  place  during  the  very  year  in  which  Mr.  Bu 
chanan's  administration  began.  These  election  results 
are  well  worthy  of  attention,  as  showing  that  the  Ameri 
can  people  were  really  devoted  to  the  principles  of  true 
constitutional  conservatism,  and  only  desired  the  govern 
ment  at  Washington  to  be  administered  in  the  concilia 
tory  and  fraternal  spirit  so  solemnly  inculcated  by  the 
wise  and  patriotic  statesmen  of  the  Washington  era. 
Fremont  and  Dayton  had  obtained  in  the  whole  North, 
in  the  autumn  of  1856,  1,341,812  votes.  The  elections 
which  took  place  in  1859  show  a  falling  off  in  the  aggre 
gate  strength  of  the  Eepublican  party  of  nearly  200,000 
votes.  The  Eepublican  majority  was  greatly  diminished 
in  every  New  England  state.  In  the  State  of  Connecti 
cut  especially,  the  majority  of  that  party  was  reduced 
from  7715  votes  to  546.  In  Ohio,  Governor  Chase,  whose 
local  popularity  was  known  to  be  very  great,  was  re-elect 
ed  only  by  the  slender  majority  of  1481  votes,  though  the 
Eepublicans  had  carried  the  state  in  the  immediately  pre 
ceding  year  by  a  majority  of  16,623.  In  Iowa,  where  the 
Eepublicans  had  in  1856  carried  the  state  by  a  majority 
of  7784  votes,  Governor  Lowe,  the  popular  Eepublican 
candidate  for  governor,  could  only  command  the  meagre 
majority  of  2151.  In  Wisconsin,  which  had  been  carried 
by  the  Eepublicans  in  1856  by  the  sweeping  majority  of 
13,247  votes,  their  respectable  gubernational  candidate 
barely  evaded  defeat,  his  majority  being  118  only.  In 


224  SCYLLA  AND  CHAEYBDIS. 

the  great  State  of  New  York  a  complete  civic  revolution 
was  effected  such  as  the  history  of  the  republic  has  rarely 
exhibited.  In  this  vast  and  enlightened  commonwealth, 
where  the  spirit  of  the  people  has  been  ever  conservative, 
and  among  whom  an  intense  and  abiding  love  of  the 
Federal  Union  has  been  always  a  distinguishing  charac 
teristic,  Fremont's  plurality  of  80,000  was  changed  to  a 
Democratic  majority  of  18,000.  "It  appeared,"  says  Mr. 
Greeley,  in  his  "American  Conflict,"  "in  this  (New  York), 
as  in  the  other  free  states,  that  the  decline  or  dissolution 
of  the  American  or  Fillmore  party  inured  mainly  to  the 
benefit  of  the  triumphant  Democracy,  though  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  possibly  Ehode  Island,  were  exceptions.  To 
swell  the  resistless  tide,  Minnesota  and  Oregon,  both  in 
the  extreme  north,  each  framed  a  state  Constitution  this 
year,  and  took  position  in  line  with  the  dominant  party, 
Minnesota  by  a  small,  Oregon  by  an  overwhelming  ma 
jority — the  two  swelling,  by  four  senators  and  four  repre 
sentatives,  the  already  invincible  strength  of  the  Democ 
racy."  One  of  the  most  remarkable  elections  of  this  pe 
riod  remains  yet  to  be  specified.  California,  which  had 
been  carried  by  a  majority  of  some  5000  votes  by  the 
'American  party  (where,  as  I  chance  personally  to  know, 

!it  was  a  Union  Reform  party,  and  nothing  more  nor  less), 
in  the  election  of  governor  and  other  officers,  in  the  year 
1855,  was  carried  for  the  Democratic  party,  just  two  years 
thereafter,  by  a  plurality  of  more  than  thirty  thousand 
votes.  In  the  summer  of  1857,  Mr.  Buchanan,  in  the  high 
national  attitude  which  he  occupied,  could  look  abroad 
over  the  land  and  find  himself  sustained  by  greatly  more 
than  two  thirds  of  the  whole  body  of  the  American  vot- 


FAITHLESSNESS  OF  MR.  BUCHANAN.  225 

ing  population.  It  is  melancholy  to  reflect  how  a  shame 
less  violation  of  the  pledges  with  which  this  individual 
came  into  office,  a  gross  and  almost  unprecedented  want 
of  statesmanship,  and  a  timid  and  disgraceful  subservi 
ency  to  certain  daring  and  dogmatizing  sectional  leaders 
of  the  South,  in  less  than  six  months  from  this  moment 
of  palmy  prosperity  for  the  whole  republic,  as  well  as  for 
the  administration  of  Mr.  Buchanan  and  the  now  thorough 
ly  blended  Democratic  and  American  parties,  had  com 
pletely  reversed  this  gratifying  picture.  The  leaders  just 
spoken  of  managed  in  a  few  months  thereafter  to  inveigle 
this  most  unfortunate  man  in  such  a  predicament  of  folly 
and  self-contradiction  before  the  country  as  had  never 
been  known  before  in  American  annals,  and  brought  such 
a  crushing  weight  of  odium  upon  the  Northern  portion 
of  the  Democratic  party,  in  connection  with  the  fraud- 
conceived  and  knavery-generated  Lecompton  Constitution, 
as  almost  literally  sunk  that  party  into  non-existence, 
and  paved  the  way  for  the  grand  and  fatal  misarrange- 
ment  of  1860,  whereby  the  strength  of  the  Democratic 
party  was  so  causelessly  divided,  a  Eepublican  president 
elected  by  a  plurality  of  popular  votes,  and  a  scheme  of 
disunion,  long  before  secretly  prepared,  in  due  season 
carried  into  effect,  civil  war  generated,  and  innumerable 
mischiefs  besides  turned  loose  to  prey  upon  the  land, 
the  blasting  and  wide-spread  consequences  of  which,  it  is 
to  be  greatly  feared,  our  children  and  our  children's  chil 
dren  may  be  compelled  to  experience  and  to  deplore. 
Well  may  the  sagacious  author  of  the  "  American  Con 
flict,"  while  speaking  of  the  extraordinary  conduct  of 

K2 


226  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

Mr.  Buchanan  at  this  crisis,  with  mocking  exultation,  use 
the  following  emphatic  language : 

"The  opposition  was  utterly  powerless  against  this 
surge;  but  what  they  dared  hardly  undertake,  Mr.  Bu 
chanan  was  able  to  effect.  By  his  utterly  indefensible  at 
tempt  to  enforce  the  Lecompton  Constitution  upon  Kan 
sas,  in  glaring  contradiction  to  his  smooth  and  voluble 
professions  regarding  '  popular  sovereignty,'  *  the  will  of 
the  majority,'  etc.,  etc.,  he  enabled  the  Kepublicans  in 
1858  to  hold,  by  majorities  almost  uniformly  increased, 
all  the  states  they  had  carried  the  preceding  year,  and 
reverse  the  last  year's  majority  against  them  in  New 
York;  carry  Pennsylvania,  for  the  first  time,  by  over 
26,000  majority,  triumph  even  in  New  Jersey  under  an 
equivocal  organization,  bring  over  Minnesota  by  a  close 
vote,  and  swell  their  majority  in  Ohio  to  fully  20,000. 
They  were  beaten  in  Indiana,  on  the  state  ticket,  by  a 
very  slender  majority,  but  carried  seven  of  the  eleven 
representatives  in  Congress,  besides  helping  elect  an  anti- 
Lecompton  Democrat  in  another  district ;  while  Michigan, 
Iowa,  and  Wisconsin  chose  Eepublican  tickets — as  of  late 
had  been  usual  with  them — by  respectable  majorities, 
and  the  last  named  by  one  increased  to  nearly  6,000." 

In  order  to  ascertain  clearly  what  was  the  precise  char 
acter  of  the  admonitory  suggestions  made  to  Mr.  Buchan 
an  by  the  popular  elections  that  occurred  in  the  early 
part  of  the  year  1857,  and  which  he  so  strangely  disre 
garded  in  the  manner  already  specified,  it  will  be  prop 
er  to  glance  for  a  moment  to  what  was  going  on  in 
Kansas  and  elsewhere  at  that  period.  I  contemplate  en 
tering  into  no  tedious  specification  of  particulars  touch- 


KANSAS  TERRITORY.  *  227 

ing  the  matters  alluded  to,  and  shall  confine  my  observa 
tions  to  leading  and  important  FACTS. 

The  civil  disturbances  in  Kansas  still  continued.  The 
pro-slavery  champions  in  that  territory  and  the  anti- 
slavery  propagandists  were  yet  fiercely  controverting 
with  each  other  in  that  remote  region,  and  each  of  the 
contending  factions  which  were  there  represented  was 
aiming  to 

"  Prove  its  doctrine  orthodox 
By  apostolic  blo\vs  and  knocks." 

Sharp  revolvers,  and  other  weapons  of  carnal  warfare, 
were  still  being  freely  used  on  both  sides,  and  the  whole 
territory  was  fast  becoming,  under  the  unpardonable  min 
istration  of  the  government,  an  earthly  Pandemonium. 
This  precious  legacy  of  anarchy  and  "  confusion  worse 
confounded"  was  meekly  handed  over  by  the  retiring 
Pierce,  and  his  now  home-returning  cabinet  officials,  to  Mr. 
Buchanan,  who  had  awakened  such  extraordinary  hopes 
on  all  sides  that,  under  his  judicious  direction,  order 
would  be  speedily  restored  in  Kansas,  the  dignity  of  the 
laws  maintained,  and  the  honor  of  the  republic  vindica 
ted.  There  was  plainly  but  one  wise  and  honest  course 
to  pursue,  and  that  was  evidently,  too,  the  only  course 
that  in  the  least  degree  promised  to  be  successful.  It 
was  clear  that  there  were  enough  people  in  Kansas,  and 
that  there  was  enough  of  intelligence  and  moral  worth 
also,  to  justify  the  territory  being  immediately  organized 
into  a  state.  If  these  people  should  be  allowed  to  form 
a  state  Constitution  without  any  unauthorized  foreign 
intervention,  and  in  the  absence  of  fraud  and  violence  of 
any  kind,  it  seemed  certain  that  quiet  would  soon  be  re- 


228  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

stored,  a  solid,  prosperous  commonwealth  be  formed,  and 
the  republic  be  itself  freed  from  any  farther  disquietude 
in  regard  to  its  concerns.  Honesty  and  plain  dealing  on 
the  part  of  the  government  in  Washington,  with  a  prop 
er  display  of  firmness  and  respect  for  his  avowed  princi 
ples  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  were  now  the  things 
most  demanded.  Governor  Geary,  the  third  or  fourth 
of  the  territorial  governors  who  had  been  dispatched 
from  Washington  City  to  this  far-off  region,  had  just  re 
signed  in  a  very  abrupt  manner,  and  retired  in  disgust 
from  the  territory.  It  was  necessary  to  lose  no  time  in 
appointing  his  successor.  Mr.  Buchanan  at  once  turned 
his  eyes  toward  two  of  the  most  suitable  men,  in  all  re 
spects,  that  the  country  contained,  for  the  office  of  gov 
ernor  and  secretary  of  state  of  the  new  territory,  Eobert 
J.  Walker  and  Frederick  P.  Stanton.  Mr.  Walker  is  un 
derstood  to  have  accepted  the  place  now  tendered  to  him 
with  great  reluctance,  and,  in  point  of  fact,  he  sternly  re 
fused  to  take  upon  himself  the  painful  responsibilities 
which  were  now  courting  his  assumption,  unless  he  could 
have  a  solemn  assurance  beforehand  that  he  would  be 
faithfully  sustained  by  the  government  in  the  efforts 
which  he  'contemplated  making  to  secure  to  the  people 
among  whom  he  was  going  all  the  well-known  rights 
and  immunities  of  American  citizens,  and  especially  their 
rights,  as  a  sovereign  community,  to  dispose  of  the  moot 
ed  question  of  slavery  precisely  as  they  might  judge 
most  wise  and  proper.  These  assurances  having;  been  re 
ceived,  Mr.  Walker  and  Mr.  Stanton  proceeded  at  once  to 
the  Territory  of  Kansas,  and  entered  upon  the  field  of 
duty  assigned  them.  I  have  already  said  that  I  should 


GOVERNOR  WALKER  AND  SECRETARY  ST ANTON.      229 

not  undertake  to  go  into  detail  upon  this  oft-discussed 
theme.  I  may  be  allowed  here  to  observe,  though,  that 
the  whole  conduct  of  Governor  Walker  and  Secretary 
Stanton  was  in  full  accordance  with  the  instructions 
which  Mr.  Buchanan  had  given  to  them  when  they  de 
parted  from  Washington;  that  their  official  acts  were 
such  as  did  them  the  highest  honor;  that  both  of  them 
faithfully  struggled  to  secure  to  the  unhappy  people  of 
Kansas  all  the  benefits  which  Mr.  Buchanan  was  most  sa 
credly  pledged  to  guarantee  to  them ;  and  that,  had  Mr. 
Buchanan,  with  true  fidelity  and  manliness,  performed 
his  duty  as  first  magistrate  of  the  republic,  Kansas  would 
have  been  inevitably  admitted  into  the  Union  at  the  very 
next  session  of  Congress,  and  the  conduct  of  the  new  ad 
ministration  would  have  been  in  the  end  approved  by 
nine  tenths  of  the  whole  American  people.  But  such,  I 
regret  to  say,  was  not  by  any  means  the  conduct  of  Mr. 
Buchanan  at  this  painful  conjuncture  in  his  country's  af 
fairs,  and,  by  pursuing  a  course  precisely  the  opposite  of 
this,  he  has  made  himself  most  criminally  responsible  for 
a  large  proportion  of  the  evils  which  have  since  befallen 
the  republic. 

I  left  the  State  of  California  in  the  summer  of  1857,  / 
and  arrived  in  the  city  of  New  York  only  a  day  or  two 
antecedent  to  the  assemblage  of  a  large  popular  meeting, 
which  was  addressed  by  several  very  prominent  public 
men,  in  support  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  administration,  and 
especially  in  vindication  of  the  truly  national  policy 
which  he  was  known  to  have  adopted  for  the  settlement 
of  the  Kansas  difficulties.  Having  been  invited,  also,  to 
harangue  the  multitude,  I  did  so  in  a  very  brief  manner, 


230  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

giving  some  account  of  the  political  victory  which  had 
been  then  recently  achieved  in  the  State  of  California, 
and  of  the  utter  prostration  there  of  the  Republican  fac 
tion  by  the  coalesced  forces  of  the  Democratic  and  Amer 
ican  parties,  and  urging  my  brother  Americans  of  New 
York,  so  far  as  I  judged  it  allowable  for  a  stranger  to  do 
so,  to  yield  a  hearty  support  to  Mr.  Buchanan's  adminis 
tration,  then,  as  I  thought,  honestly  exerting  itself  to  do 
all  in  its  power  toward  the  general  pacification  of  the 
country.  ^ 

Just  about  this  time  certain  leading  Southern  politi 
cians  in  Georgia,  Mississippi,  and  South  Carolina  com 
menced  a  course  of  open  and  unmeasured  denunciation 
of  Mr.  Buchanan  on  account  of  his  having  sent  Governor 
Walker  to  Kansas,  and  on  account  of  the  acts  of  this  lat 
ter  personage  as  governor  of  the  territory,  charging  the 
President  with  the  basest  ingratitude  to  the  Southern 
States  and  people,  to  whose  support  they  asserted  him  to 
have  chiefly  owed  his  elevation,  and  menacing  him,  in  ad 
dition,  with  such  opposition  in  Congress  and  elsewhere  as 
would  speedily  subject  him  to  punishment  for  the  gross 
infidelity  which  they  accused  him  of  having  exhibited 
toward  his  political  benefactors.  Fearing  very  seriously 
the  effect  of  these  movements  upon  Mr.  Buchanan,  who 
I  knew  to  be  morbidly  sensitive  to  public  reproach,  and 
anxious  beyond  the  wise  sedateness  of  true  statesman 
ship  to  please  every  body,  I  resolved  to  visit  Washing 
ton  without  delay,  hoping  to  find  out  there  whether  there 
was  any  likelihood  of  the  administration's  recoiling  from 
the  attitude  which  it  then  occupied.  On  arriving  in  that 
city,  where  I  remained  only  a  single  day,  I  learned  from 


MR.  BUCHANAN'S  PERTURBATION.     231 

the  lips  of  Mr.  Thompson,  then  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
that  though  Mr.  Buchanan  had  been  much  galled  and 
mortified  by  the  course  pursued  toward  him  in  the  South 
ern  States,  he  was  resolved  firmly  to  stand  by  Governor 
Walker  and  non-intervention  in  Kansas,  whatever  might 
be  the  consequences  of  his  doing  so  to  himself  personal 
ly,  or  to  the  future  prosperity  of  his  administration.  Mr. 
Thompson  having  expressed  in  that  interview  strong  fears 
that  in  the  Southwest,  particularly  in  Mississippi  and  the 
adjoining  states,  Senators  Davis  and  Brown,  with  others, 
might  succeed,  if  not  promptly  counteracted,  in  mislead 
ing  their  fellow-citizens  in  regard  to  the  Kansas  imbroglio, 
I  volunteered  to  go  in  that  direction  myself,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  employing  such  influence  as  might  still  remain 
to  me,  after  a  four  years'  absence,  in  furthering  a  cause 
which  I  had  so  much  at  heart.  I  set  out  accordingly, 
and  journeyed  at  once  to  the  city  of  Memphis,  where, 
being  invited  to  address  my  fellow-citizens,  I  attended  a 
large  popular  assemblage  convoked  under  the  auspices 
of  the  most  influential  public  persons  in  that  vicinage, 
over  which  the  eminently  patriotic  ex-Governor  Jones 
presided,  and,  in  a  harangue  of  several  hours'  duration, 
called  the  attention  of  those  present  to  the  then  existing 
condition  of  public  affairs,  and  labored  to  show  them  that 
it  was  the  true  policy  of  the  South,  as  of  the  whole  coun 
try  besides,  to  yield  to  Mr.  Buchanan  the  most  zealous 
support  at  that  perilous  conjuncture.  The  address  which 
I  delivered  on  this  occasion,  with  the  evidences  of  popu 
lar  approval  which  the  advice  embodied  therein  had  elic 
ited,  in  manner  and  form  as  the  same  were  set  forth  in 
the  newspapers  of  the  vicinage,  I  took  occasion  to  trans- 


232  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

mit  directly  to  Washington  for  Mr.  Buchanan's  encour 
agement,  after  which  I  proceeded  at  once  to  the  city  of 
Jackson,  in  Mississippi,  where  the  Legislature  of  that 
state  was  then  in  session.  On  arriving  at  this  place,  and 
learning  that  the  two  Mississippi  senators,  Messrs.  Davis 
and  Brown,  had  both  addressed  a  large  meeting  at  the 
Capitol  on  the  evening  before  my  arrival,  when  each  of 
these  gentlemen  had  denounced  Mr.  Buchanan's  Kansas 
policy  in  unmeasured  terms,  I  accepted  an  invitation  ten 
dered  to  me  to  speak  to  a  similar  assemblage  at  the  same 
place  on  the  very  evening  ensuing  my  arrival;  having 
done  which,  I  again  sent  to  Dr.  William  M.  Gwin,  then  in 
Washington  City,  to  be  handed  over  to  Mr.  Buchanan, 
the  newspapers  of  Jackson,  containing  an  account  of 
these  proceedings.  It  was  unfortunately  of  no  avail  that 
these  efforts  to  reassure  Mr.  Buchanan  were  essayed  by 
myself  and  others ;  he  had  already  become  panic-strick 
en;  the  howlings  of  the  bull-dog  of  secession  had  fairly 
frightened  him  out  of  his  wits,  and  he  resolved  to  yield, 
without  farther  resistance,  to  the  decrial  and  villification 
to  which  he  had  been  so  thunderingly  subjected.  In 
point  of  fact,  |i  week  or  two  thereafter,  the  Hon.  Glancy 
Jones,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  well-known  and  confidential 
friend  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  published  in  the  newspapers  a 
letter,  in  which  the  first  foreshadowing  appeared  of  Mr. 
Buchanan's  determination  completely  to  revolutionize  his 
course  in  the  Kansas  affair. 

Having  become,  in  common  with  thousands  of  others, 
deeply  alarmed  at  the  condition  of  public  affairs,  I  visited 
Washington  City  early  in  the  session  of  Congress  next 
ensuing,  not  without  some  faint  hope,  I  confess,  that  even 


FEARFUL  EXCITEMENT  IN  CONGRESS.  233 

my  presence  and  efforts  at  the  capital  of  the  republic 
would  not  be  altogether  useless.  I  there  encountered 
Mr.  Buchanan's  message  recommending  the  admission  of 
Kansas  into  the  Union  under  the  infamous  Lecompton 
Constitution,  and  found  a  state  of  political  excitement  such 
as  it  was  indeed  most  painful  to  behold.  I  was  quite 
sensible  that,  as  a  mere  private  citizen,  I  could  do  but  lit 
tle  to  avert  the  rising  storm,  but  I  did,  notwithstanding, 
all  that  I  was  capable  of  doing  for  that  purpose. 

Let  us  now  look  for  a  moment,  and  for  a  moment  only, 
to  the  occurrences  which  had  recently  had  their  progress 
in  Kansas.  Two  opposing  Conventions  had  been  held 
there.  The  Pro -slavery  Convention  had  assembled  at 
Lecompton  on  the  first  Monday  of  September.  A  pro- 
slavery  Constitution  was  speedily  framed.  This  Consti 
tution  was  promulgated,  and  the  people  of  Kansas  were 
invited  to  vote,  in  regard  to  its  ratification,  in  a  mode 
which,  I  venture  to  say,  was  at  the  time  altogether  un 
precedented,  and,  indeed,  was  consummately  disgraceful. 
The  formula  prescribed  by  the  Convention  required  that 
every  citizen  desiring  to  participate  in  the  act  of  ratifica 
tion  should  either  vote  "for  the  Constitution  with  slav 
ery,"  or  "for  the  Constitution  without  slavery."  None 
could  vote  who  would  not  submit  to  going  through  this 
absurd  and  farcical  process.  The  popular  vote  in  this 
election  was  soon  announced  as  6266  votes  "for  the  Con 
stitution  with  slavery,"  and  567  only  "  for  the  Constitu 
tion  without  slavery."  So  what  was  called  a  Constitution 
was  in  this  form  ratified  by  less  than  7000  votes.  The 
provisions  of  this  extraordinary  instrument  prohibited 
any  interference  "with  the  rights  of  property  in  slaves" 


234  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

for  the  present,  and  likewise  prohibited  any  amendment 
of  its  own  clauses  until  the  year  1864.  The  subject  is 
far  too  disgusting  to  be  farther  expatiated  on  at  this  mo 
ment.  A  more  corrupt  and  fraudulent  transaction  had 
never  taken  place  in  Christendom  than  the  pretended 
adoption  and  ratification  of  this  pseudo-Constitution ;  a 
more  heartless  and  unprecedented  attempt  to  enslave  more 
than  ten  thousand  free  American  citizens  could  not  pos 
sibly  be  imagined.  And  yet  the  abominable  frauds 
which  no  one  could  deny  had  been  perpetrated  in  Kan 
sas,  had  been  done  in  the  name  of  the  Southern  States  and 
people,  whose  escutcheon  had,  until  this  melancholy  con 
juncture,  been  ever  kept  pure  and  unstained,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  Democratic  party  also,  the  members  of  which 
were  expected  to  stand  up  in  their  places  in  the  halls  of 
the  national  Legislature,  and  proclaim  that  honester  and 
more  legitimate  proceedings  had  never  been  known  to 
occur  in  any  territory  seeking  to  frame  a  state  Constitu 
tion  preparatory  to  entering  the  Federal  Union,  and  that 
no  man  had  better  deserved  the  thanks  and  commenda 
tion  of  his  countrymen  than  James  Buchanan,  who  had 
so  nobly,  as  it  was  said,  risked  his  darling  popularity  in 
this  wise  and  heroic  effort  to  serve  that  country  which 
he  loved  so  well,  and  to  maintain  those  sacred  institutions 
of  freedom  which  he  professed  to  hold  in  such  profound 
reverence ! 

The  death-blow  to  slavery  had  now  been  struck  ~by  its  own 
professed  friends,  and  the  Northern  members  of  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  in  Congress,  upon  whose  brawny  shoulders 
this  intolerable  burden  had  been  imposed,  were  expected 
to  hold  themselves  erect  notwithstanding,  and  to  go  back 


CHARACTEKISTIC   ANECDOTE.  235 

to  their  own  homes  in  a  month  or  two  arduously  to  "bat 
tle  with  the  fierce  foes  whom  they  had  now  armed  for 
their  own  destruction,  and,  if  possible,  uphold  that  firm 
wall  of  defense  against  abolition  hostility  which  the  North 
ern  Democracy  had  ever,  up  to  that  unfortunate  moment, 
constituted. 

After  Mr.  Buchanan  had  sent  into  Congress  two  sev 
eral  messages  earnestly  recommending  to  that  body  to 
ratify  the  Lecompton  swindle,  he  began  to  grow  very  rest 
less  and  uneasy,  and  I  conversed  with  more  than  a  dozen 
members  of  Congress,  who  informed  me  that  they  had 
just  come  from  the  White  House,  where  the  anxious 
President  had  urged  them,  in  language  almost  of  impre 
cation,  for  God's  sake,  not  to  forsake  him  and  the  true 
Democratic  cause  at  this  crisis.  I  heard  from  the  lips  of 
Mr.  Toombs,  about  this  period,  a  rather  amusing  anec 
dote,  alike  illustrative  of  the  uneasiness  of  Mr.  Buchanan 
as  to  the  fate  of  his  pet  scheme  in  Congress,  and  his  in 
genuity  in  devising  new  expedients  for  the  strengthening 
of  his  political  position.  Mr.  Toombs  related  that  a  few 
days  before  he  had  been  at  the  presidential  mansion, 
when  the  conversation  turning  upon  the  troubles  then 
existing  in  Congress,  Mr.  Buchanan  said:  "Mr.  Toombs, 
when  I  was  a  member  of  Congress  some  years  ago,  when 
ever  the  Democratic  party  was  hard  pressed,  they  always 
went  into  caucus,  where  it  was  found  quite  easy  to  recon 
cile  discordances,  and  secure  a  union  of  party  energies. 
Why  do  you  not  call  a  Democratic  caucus  now  in  Con 
gress  ?  I  am  sure  it  would  be  attended  with  exceedingly 
beneficial  effects."  u  Oh,"  responded  the  ever-facetious 
and  ready  Toombs,  "  Mr.  President,  you  have  forgotten 


236  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

my  political  history  a  little ;  when,  I  came  into  Congress 
as  a  senator,  a  few  years  ago,  I  did  so  as  a  Union  Whig. 
I  could  not,  therefore,  you  know,  with  any  show  of  de 
cent  consistency,  go  into  a  Democratic  caucus  until  my 
present  senatorial  term  shall  have  expired.  Wait  pa 
tiently,  I  pray  you,  Mr.  President,  a  few  weeks  ;  my  pres 
ent  senatorial  term  will  expire  on  the  coming  4th  of 
March,  and,  having  been  recently  elected  to  a  second 
term,  as  a  Democrat,  whenever  that  shall  commence  its 
course,  I  shall  be  prepared  for  all  the  duties  of  my  new 
position,  and  I  promise  you  to  be  as  good  a  caucus  Dem 
ocrat  as  ever  you  heard  of." 

During  my  stay  in  Washington  City,  while  the  Kan 
sas  Bill  was  yet  the  subject  of  contention,  I  received  one 
day  a  very  neat  card  inviting  me  to  dine  with  a  select 
party  of  gentlemen  at  a  well-known  restaurateur  in  that 
city.  Of  course,  I  did  not  refuse  the  kindly  summons, 
and  proceeded  at  the  time  appointed  to  the  place  speci 
fied.  Before  I  had  arrived  there,  some  special  informa 
tion  was  communicated  to  me  which  I  will  now  impart. 
General  Nelson,  the  personage  who  figured  so  promi 
nently  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  during  the  late  war, 
and  who  was  killed  so  unhappily  in  private  combat  at 
Louisville,  had  been  on  his  way  to  the  Capitol  that  morn 
ing,  and  had  accidentally  encountered  a  well-dressed 
Englishman,  of  rather  eccentric  appearance  and  manners, 
who  inquired,  in  a  sort  of  Coclmeyish  style,  as  was  de 
scribed  to  me,  for  the  room  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  After  supplying  the  desired  information, 
a  miscellaneous  conversation  sprang  up  between  the  gen 
eral  and  this  supposed  Cockney  acquaintance.  He  de- 


CONVIVIAL   BANQUET.  237 

termined  to  attend  him  to  the  Supreme  Court  room,  that 
he  might  see  more  of  him.  While  there,  it  struck  him 
that  a  very  funny  banqueting  scene  might  be  gotten  up, 
if  he  should  draw  up  a  card  of  invitation  to  the  aforesaid 
son  of  the  "fast-anchored  isle,"  asking  him,  in  the  name 
of  several  distinguished  members  of  Congress  easy  to  be 
obtained,  to  accept  that  very  afternoon  of  a  social  repast, 
to  be  given  in  honor  of  Queen  Victoria  and  the  British 
people,  at  the  restaurateur  already  referred  to.  The  in 
vitation  had  been  very  courteously  accepted ;  and  when 
I  arrived  at  the  designated  place  of  social  rendezvous,  I 
found  as  gay  and  splendid  a  company  assembled  as  it  has 
been  my  lot  at  any  time  to  behold.  The  English  guest 
was  occupying  the  seat  of  honor,  and  on  different  sides 
of  him,  and  opposite  to  him,  were  seated  the  following 
gentlemen,  with  others  whose  names  I  have  really  now 
forgotten :  the  Yice-President  of  the  United  States,  Mr. 
Breckenridge ;  William  H.  Seward,  of  New  York ;  Col 
onel  Orr,  the  then  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Eepresenta- 
tives,  since  a  distinguished  Confederate  military  officer, 
and  a  still  more  distinguished  Confederate  senator  in 
Eichmond ;  Hon.  Mr.  Campbell,  of  Ohio ;  the  celebra 
ted  Humphrey  Marshall,  of  Kentucky ;  Albert  Pike, 
the  erudite  lawyer,  the  brilliant  colloquialist,  and  late 
prominent  military  officer  in  the  Confederate  service  of 
Arkansas ;  General  Nelson  himself,  and  the  writer  of 
this  notice.  Dinner  had  already  commenced  when  I 
reached  the  arena  of  action,  and  the  first  glass  of  wine 
was  about  to  be  drunk.  A  sentiment  preceded  it,  which, 
being  in  honor  of  her  gracious  majesty  Queen  Yictoria, 
called  our  English  friend  to  his  feet,  when,  without  the 


238  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

least  embarrassment,  and  in  as  easy,  dignified,  and  grace 
ful  a  manner  as  either  Lord  Palmerston.  or  Lord  Ches 
terfield,  when  these  polished  worthies  were  alive,  could 
have  exhibited,  he  poured  forth  an  impromptu  response, 
which  was,  in  every  respect,  a  perfect  masterpiece  of  its 
kind.  The  whole  company  was  manifestly  thrown  aback 
for  a  time,  the  oratorical  exhibition  had  been  so  unexpect 
ed,  and  alike  imposing  and  appropriate.  After  a  while 
the  wine  commenced  once  more  circulating,  and  glass  aft 
er  glass  was  drunk  with  hearty  good-will ;  while  choice 
anecdote,  brilliant  repartee,  and  songs  both  merry  and 
pathetic,  served  to  enliven  the  occasion.  Just  as  the 
company  was  rising  from  the  table,  Mr.  Seward,  who  had 
already  contributed  at  least  his  share  to  the  entertain 
ment,  rose,  and,  with  more  than  usual  gravity,  asked  to 
be  permitted  to  offer  a  sentiment,  to  which  all  the  com 
pany  assenting  in  a  genuine  convivial  manner,  he  ad 
dressed  the  company  pretty  much  as  follows : 

"Gentlemen,  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  occupy  a  seat 
in  Congress,  as  you  all  very  well  know,  for  some  years, 
during  which  period  I  have  made  one  of  many  genial 
meetings  like  the  present.  1  lament  to  say,  gentlemen, 
that  it-  has  uniformly  happened  heretofore  on  such  occa 
sions  that  the  concord  and  agreeable  hilarity  of  the  din 
ner  scene  have  been  more  or  less  marred  by  the  unhappy 
introduction  of  irritating  sectional  topics.  To-day  noth 
ing  of  the  sort  has  occurred,  a  circumstance  to  me  ex 
ceedingly  gratifying.  I  now  give  you,  gentlemen,  the 
following  sentiment :  May  many  such  pleasant  banquets  as 
the  present  hereafter  occur  among  us,  and  may  none  of  them 
be  interrupted  or  rendered  less  agreeable  by  the  introduction 
of  sectional  topics" 


MB.  SEWAKD   AND    ME.  BUCHANAN.  239 

After  this  sentiment,  or  one  in  substance  resembling 
it,  had  been  duly  honored,  the  company  dispersed,  in  ab 
solute  good-humor  with  themselves  and  all  the  world. 
The  very  next  day  (being  Sunday)  I  wandered  down  to 
the  Kev.  Mr.  Pine's  church,  where,  on  entering,  I  beheld 
Mr.  Seward  again,  and  for  the  last  time.  He  saw  me  en 
ter,  and,  discovering  that  I  had  no  pew  at  my  command, 
he  courteously  stepped  down  the  main  aisle  and  asked  me 
to  take  part  of  his  own  pew,  which  I  did,  and  when  the 
services  of  the  day  were  over,  took  my  leave  of  him,  and 
walked  toward  my  own  lodgings  on  Pennsylvania  Ave 
nue.  On  the  way  I  met  President  Buchanan.  He  ac 
costed  me  kindly,  inquired  after  my  health,  and  told  me 
he  was  just  returning  to  the  presidential  mansion  from 
the  dwelling  of  Senator  Bright,  whither  he  had  attended 
his  charming  daughter  from  church.  Mr.  Buchanan  re 
buked  me  kindly  for  not  having  visited  him  during  my 
sojourn  in  "Washington,  and  seemed  to  be  somewhat  in 
clined  to  converse  for  a  moment  upon  the  exciting  topics 
of  the  day.  The  weather  was  far  too  cold  for  an  extend 
ed  conversation  on  the  open  street ;  so,  after  chatting  with 
him  for  a  minute  or  two,  I  said,  "  Mr.  President,  I  shall 
be  off  to  the  Southwest  to-morrow,  and  I  wish  I  could 
return  to  my  own  home  without  carrying  with  me  feel 
ings  of  great  uneasiness  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  the 
country."  I  declared  to  him,  in  explicit  but  kindly  lan 
guage,  my  views  as  to  the  consequences  likely  to  arise 
from  the  unfortunate  Lecompton  experiment,  and  closed 
by  saying  to  him,  "  Mr.  President,  I  know  more  of  the 
schemes  of  the  Southern  secession  leaders  than  you  do. 
You  have  yielded  much  to  them  during  the  present  ses- 


240  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

sion,  and  I  fear  that  events  have  occurred,  and  are  occur 
ring,  which  will  break  down  the  strength  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  increase  that  of  the  Kepublican  party  pro 
portionately,  secure  the  election  of  a  Eepublican  presi 
dent  in  1860,  and  then,  I  warn  you  solemnly  to  look  out  for 
a  secession  movement  to  take  place  which  will  give  the  coun 
try  and  yourself  great  trouble.  I  did  not  feel  willing  to 
leave  Washington  without  uttering  in  your  hearing  these 
premonitory  words."  He  responded,  evidently  with  some 
embarrassment,  pretty  much  as  follows : 

"Let  me  say  to  you,  sir,  in  frankness,  that  if  such  dan 
gers  should  arise  as  those  to  which  you  refer,  I  shall 
know  how  to  do  my  duty.  In  1852  I  sought  the  presi 
dential  nomination  at  the  hands  of  the  Democratic  party, 
and  I  did  not  obtain  it.  In  1856  the  presidential  nomi 
nation  sought  me;  I  did  not  make  any  effort  to  procure 
it.  My  attitude,  therefore,  is  a  very  independent  one; 
and  if  any  body  of  men  any  where  shall  attempt  to  sub 
vert  the  government,  whose  executive  chief  I  am,  I  feel 
confident  that  I  shall  know  how  to  deal  with  them,  and 
the  whole  republic  will  find  me  not  unfaithful  to  the 
great  trust  with  which  I  have  been  invested."  I  replied, 
"I  doubt  not  the  goodness  of  your  intentions;  I  trust 
that  you  will  prove  in  all  respects  equal  to  the  perilous 
conjuncture  which  I  am  sure  is  not  far  distant,  but  I  fear 
much  that  you  are  confiding  in  the  friendship  and  integ 
rity  of  some  who  will  fail  you  when  the  moment  of  dan 
ger  shall  arrive."  So  speaking,  I  took  him  by  the  hand 
for  the  last  time. 

It  is  certain  that  Northern  and  Southern  members  of 
Congress  were  made  fully  aware  of  all  the  dangerous 


DINNER  AT  GENERAL   CASS'S  HOUSE.  241 

consequences  likely  to  arise  from  this  fearful  Lecompton 
movement.  The  certainty  that  the  Northern  Democracy 
would  be  almost  virtually  disbanded  if  this  noxious 
measure  should  be  generally  supported  by  them,  and 
that  thus  the  republic  would  almost  inevitably  fall  into^ 
the  hands  of  the  Free-soil  party  in  1860,  was  presented 
to  them,  not  only  in  forcible  and  eloquent  speeches  in 
Congress,  but  in  numerous  conversational  scenes,  some 
of  which  I  yet  vividly  remember.  One  of  these  1  will 
here  describe. 

I  had  the  honor  to  be  invited  to  dine  one  day  at  the 
hospitable  mansion  of  General  Cass.  A  large  company 
assembled  at  the  table,  among  whom  I  well  recollect 
Senator  Evans,  of  South  Carolina,  Senator  Bigler,  of 
Pennsylvania,  Senator  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts,  Glancy 
Jones,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  others.  It  was  a  mixed 
company,  as  might  have  been  expected,  composed  alike 
of  Northern  and  of  Southern  members  of  Congress.  It 
chanced  that  Glancy  Jones  was  seated  near  me  on  one 
side,  and  a  well-known  representative  from  Alabama  on 
the  other.  The  Kansas  question  presently  fell  under  dis 
cussion,  in  a  suppressed  tone,  between  the  member  from 
Alabama,  Mr.  Jones,  and  myself.  When  we  had  run 
over  the  usual  topics,  I  turned  to  Mr.  Jones  and  said, 
"Now,  sir,  I  desire  to  ask  you  a  question  or  two,  which 
I  am  sure  you  will  answer  frankly.  If  the  Lecompton 
Bill  shall  be  passed  through  Congress  ly  Democratic  votes, 
will  not  its  passage  be  fatal  to  the  Northern  portion  of 
the  party,  and  secure  success  to  the  Eepublicans  in  the 
coming  elections?"  To  this  he  answered  "that  he  held 
this  result  to  be  certain ;  that  it  would  be  especially  the 

L 


242  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

case  in  Pennsylvania,  where  it  was  not  probable  that  a 
single  Democratic  representative  would  be  returned  to  the 
next  Congress ;  that  he  himself  might  possibly  be  elected, 
but,  if  so,  it  would  be  by  the  skin  of  his  teeth}'1  Then  I 
asked,  "  How  is  the  South  to  be  benefited  by  the  adop 
tion  of  a  measure  flagrantly  unjust  in  itself,  and  violative 
of  all  the  known  principles  of  freedom,  beneath  which 
her  friends  and  supporters  in  the  North  are  to  be  broken 
down  ?"  He  answered  that  he  could  not  but  think  that 
the  South  and  the  country  would  alike  be  benefited  if 
the  scheme  of  passing  the  obnoxious  measure  should  be 
relinquished,  in  which  event  he  held  it  to  be  certain  that 
the  Democratic  party,  which  had  been  so  signally  suc 
cessful  in  recent  elections,  would  be  able  to  sweep  the 
whole  North  in  1860,  and  thus  secure  the  slavehold- 
ing  interests  of  the  South  from  abolition  assailment." 
"Then,"  said  I,  "  my  dear  sir,  if  such  be  your  views,  why 
do  you  not  enforce  them  on  Mr.  Buchanan?"  "Be 
cause,"  said  he,  "  I  could  not  do  so  without  giving  him 
serious  offense."  After  dinner,  I  talked  for  a  few  min 
utes  with  Senator  Bigler,  of  the  same  state,  whose  antici 
pations  as  to  the  probable  fate  of  the  Democratic  party 
of  the  North  under  this  poisoned  Lecompton  chalice 
seemed  to  be  most  gloomy. 

The  whole  country  remembers  how  nobly  Mr.  Douglas 
battled  in  Congress  against  this  abominable  measure;  how 
much  higher  intellectual  powers  he  displayed  than  he 
had  ever  before  exhibited ;  with  what  cruel  malevolence 
he  was  assaulted  in  debate  by  senators  from  the  South, 
for  the  conciliation  of  whom,  in  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
struggle,  he  had  sacrificed  so  much  of  his  well-earned 


FIERCE  DEBATES  IN  CONGRESS.  243 

Northern  popularity,  only  now  to  become  the  victim  of 
a  foul  and  malign  conspiracy,  organized  specially  for  his 
destruction,  by  individuals  anxious  above  all  things  to 
enfeeble  him  for  the  presidential  struggle  of  1860. 

The  triumph  of  Mr.  Douglas  over  his  numerous  adver 
saries  was  complete,  as  all  who  listened  to  the  stormy  de 
bates  which  then  occurred,  or  who  have  read  them  in  the 
Congressional  Globe  since,  will  have  no  hesitation  in  ad 
mitting.  Mr.  Crittenden  and  Mr.  Bell,  from  the  South, 
spoke  with  great  power  and  effect  also ;  but  these  gentle 
men  did  not  come  to  the  rescue  in  the  contest  quite  early 
enough  to  achieve  as  much  as  they  might  have  attained 
had  they  spoken  in  the  beginning  of  the  session,  as  many 
of  their  admiring  friends,  including  myself,  urged  them 
both  to  do.  It  is  within  my  own  private  knowledge, 
that  General  Houston,  of  Texas,  had  prepared  some  ex 
cellent  and  manly  resolutions,  declarative  of  his  views  in 
opposition  to  the  Lecompton  fraud,  and  had  drawn  up 
the  heads  of  a  speech  which  he  intended  to  deliver  in 
support  thereof,  when  the  instructions  from  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Texas  reached  him,  and  paralyzed  his  energies  for 
the  session. 

The  subsequent  proceedings  in  Congress  are  yet  fresh 
in  the  memories  of  us  all — the  transformation  of  the  Le 
compton  Bill,  which  had  pretty  well  done  its  work  of 
mischief  already,  into  what  was  afterward  known  as  the 
English  Bill ;  the  passage  of  this  latter,  in  part  by  South 
ern  votes,  with  a  clause  submitting  the  question  of  the 
Lecompton  Constitution  anew,  on  certain  terms  and  con 
ditions,  to  the  people  of  Kansas,  followed  by  a  scene  of 
public  rejoicing  at  the  White  House  over  what  appeared 


244  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

to  be  deemed  by  those  assembled  as  a  magnificent  South 
ern  victory,  when,  in  truth,  it  only  opened  to  the  people 
of  Kansas  an  opportunity  of  voting  down  themselves  the 
Constitution  which,  in  an  evil  hour,  an  unpaternal  presi 
dent  and  his  abettors  had  essayed  to  force  upon  them. 

And  now  the  conflict,  so  easy  to  be  repressed,  if  a  wise 
and  honest  statemanship  had  been  put  in  exercise,  was 
renewed  under  auspices  eminently  perilous  to  the  coun 
try.  Can  any  sober  and  unprejudiced  mind,  on  consid 
ering  these  details,  agree  still  with  Mr.  Seward  in  that 
noted  declaration  of  his  which  has  been  so  often  referred 
to  in  these  volumes,  and  which  will  now  be  given  in  a 
somewhat  fuller  manner  ?  These  are  his  words : 

"These  antagonistic  systems  are  continually  coming 
into  closer  contact,  and  collision  results. , 

"Shall  I  tell  you  what  this  collision  means?  They 
who.  think  it  is  accidental,  unnecessary,  the  work  of  in 
terested  or  fanatical  agitators,  and  therefore  ephemeral, 
mistake  the  case  altogether.  It  is  an  irrepressible  conflict 
between  opposing  and  enduring  forces,  and  it  means  that 
the  United  States  must  and  will,  sooner  or  later,  become 
either  entirely  a  slaveholding  nation  or  entirely  a  free-la 
bor  nation.  Either  the  cotton  and  rice  fields  of  South 
Carolina,  and  the  sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana,  will  ul 
timately  be  tilled  by  free  labor,  and  Charleston  and  New 
Orleans  become  marts  for  legitimate  merchandise  alone, 
or  else  the  rye-fields  and  wheat-fields  of  Massachusetts 
and  New  York  must  again  be  surrendered  by  their  far 
mers  to  slave  culture  and  to  the  production  of  slaves,  and 
Boston  and  New  York  become  once  more  markets  for 
trade  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men.  It  is  the  failure  to 


IRREPRESSIBLE   CONFLICT  AGAIN.  245 

apprehend  this  great  truth  that  induces  so  many  unsuc 
cessful  attempts  at  final  compromise  between  the  slave 
and  free  states ;  and  it  is  the  existence  of  this  great  fact 
that  renders  all  such  pretended  compromises,  when  made, 
vain  and  ephemeral." 


2-16  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Conspiracy  of  certain  Senators  to  defeat  the  "Little  Giant  of  the  West" 
in  his  supposed  presidential  Aspirations. — Signal  Triumph  of  this  Gen 
tleman  as  a  Debater  over  all  Opposition. — Opening  of  the  senatorial 
Contest  between  Mr.  Douglas  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  of  Illinois. — Extraordi 
nary  Efforts  of  Mr.  Buchanan  and  other  Individuals  of  the  Democratic 
Party  to  effect  Mr.  Douglas's  Defeat  and  secure  the  Election  of  his  Op 
ponent. — Eventual  Triumph  of  Mr.  Douglas,  who  returns  to  the  Senate 
to  undergo  Ostracism  at  the  Hands  of  senatorial  Democrats  in  Caucus 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Buchanan. — Deep  Injury  done  to  the  South 
ern  Cause  by  the  unjust  Course  pursued  toward  Mr.  Douglas,  which 
caused  many  of  this  Gentleman's  political  Supporters  in  the  North  to 
grow  lukewarm  in  the  support  of  Southern  Rights. — Special  Causes 
which  now  operated  to  produce  sectional  Excitement. — Indecent  and 
ruffianly  Assault  upon  Mr.  Sumner. — Dred  Scott  Decision. — The  South 
indiscreetly  exultant  over  it,  and  the  North  indignant. — Attempt  by 
certain  Persons  in  the  South  to  bring  about  the  reopening  of  the  Afri 
can  Slave-trade. — Important  judicial  Contest  in  Ohio  touching  the  va 
lidity  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. — Ossawatqmie  Brown  upon  a  Ram 
page  in  the  Bosom  of  Virginia  as  a  radical,  political,  and  moral  Re 
former,  ready  to  shed  Oceans  of  Blood  in  defense  of  universal  Free 
dom. — Interesting  Debate  in  the  United  States  Senate  on  this  Subject. 
— Impolitic  Execution  of  Brown,  by  which  he  was  unnecessarily  made 
a  Martyr. 

THE  excited  struggle  in  Congress  was  now  over.  All 
impartial  men  acknowledged  that  "  the  Little  Giant  of 
the  West,"  as  he  was  now  popularly  entitled,  had  pros 
trated  all  who  had  opposed  the  great  eternal  truths  which 
he  had  labored  to  establish  in  the  fierce  and  obstinately 
contested  battles  of  principle  which  had  been  going  on  in 


TRIUMPH* OF  TRUTH.  247 

the  Senate.  All  who  had  presumed  to  measure  strength 
with  him  in  this  body  had  been  covered  with  disgrace, 
and  Mr.  Buchanan,  who,  it  was  well  known,  had  now  con 
ceived  a  hatred  for  this  fearless  champion  of  intervention 
and  popular  sovereignty,  proportionate  to  the  humilia 
ting  consciousness  which  he  could  not  but  feel  of  baffled 
management  and  counteracted  trickery,  prepared,  as  a  solace 
for  his  wounded  pride,  to  aid,  as  far  as  he  might  be  able, 
in  having  Mr.  Douglas  defeated  in  the  approaching  con 
test  for  senatorial  honors  in  Illinois ;  in  which  contest  all 
the  true  friends  of  popular  freedom,  and  all  the  sympa 
thizers  with  harassed  and  persecuted  merit,  were  in  feel 
ing  enlisted  on  the  side  of  one  who  had  thus  far  shown 
himself  so  far  superior,  both  in  moral  and  intellectual 
power,  to  all  who  had  ventured  into  combat  with  him. 
It  is  a  fact  which  has  not  heretofore  awakened  the  con 
sideration  which  is  due  to  such  conduct,  that  Mr.  Buchan 
an  and  those  of  the  Democratic  party  who  concurred  with 
him  in  feeling,  made  the  most  strenuous,  but,  for  the  most 
part,  covert  and  illicit  efforts  to  secure  the  defeat  of  Mr. 
Douglas  for  re-election  to  the  national  Senate  in  Illinois. 
If  Douglas  could  be  now  beaten  (these  men  argued),  the 
national  Senate  would  be  henceforth  enfranchised  from 
the  potential  influence  which  he  had  been  for  several  years 
exerting  in  furtherance  of  doctrines  which  were  altogeth 
er  repugnant  to  the  theory  that  the  power  of  the  govern 
ment  might  "be  properly  used  for  the  propagation  of  African 
slavery,  and  for  the  purpose  of  extending  its  domain  even  into 
regions  not  especially  adapted  to  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  were,  and  for  reasons  not  wholly  dissimilar,  persons 
in  public  life  of  exorbitant  ambition,  of  capacities  wholly 


248  SCYLLA  AND 'CHAR YBDIS. 

unfit  to  contest  with  the  illustrious  champion  of  popu 
lar  sovereignty  in  the  field  of  parliamentary  debate,  who 
intensely  sighed  for  his  absence  from  that  arena  where  he 
had  been  recently  acquiring  such  a  surpassing  and  pecul 
iar  renown,  in  order  to  multiply  the  chances  of  their  own 
future  advancement,  and  at  the  same  time  facilitate  the 
employment  of  Federal  power  as  an  efficient  agent  not 
only  for  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  regions  where 
it  did  not  now  subsist,  but  for  its  complete  extinction 
where  it  had  heretofore  stood  protected  by  the  most  sa 
cred  constitutional  guarantees.  All  who  were  any  where 
opposed  to  the  grand  conservative  principle — alike  valu 
able  in  politics,  in  religion,  and  in  morals,  quieta  non  mo- 
vere — and  who  were  still  bent  on  the  agitation  of  the  ques 
tion  of  slavery  for  any  purpose,  were  alike  opposed  to  the 
clear-headed  and  magnanimous  statesman  who  now  plain 
ly  and  painfully  perceived  the  error  which  he  had  im 
pulsively  committed  in  acquiescing  in  the  attempt  to  re 
scind,  by  special  legislative  enactment,  the  Missouri  Com 
promise,  which  had  so  long  maintained  the  peace  of  the 
country  and  held  in  suppression  the  factious  restlessness 
of  sectional  demagogues.  Mr.  Douglas  felt  an  intense 
scorn  for  the  shallow,  sophisticating  dogmatists  both  of 
the  South  and  of  the  North,  who  noisily  babbled  forth 
the  ineffably  nonsensical  jargon,  which  is  yet  mistaken 
for  true  political  philosophy,  that  there  must  be  an  abso 
lute  similitude  between  the  property  interests  and  muni 
cipal  arrangements  of  communities  bound  together  by  a 
mere  federative  compact,  in  order  to  secure  them  against 
collisions  and  misunderstandings.  He  had  read  the  his 
tory  of  confederacies  similar  to  ours,  in  other  lands  and 


DOUGLAS  A  PHILOSOPHIC  STATESMAN.  249 

in  other  ages,  and  he  had  examined  the  profound  exposi 
tions  of  political  wisdom  which  had  made  at  different 
times  their  appearance  in  the  world  from  the  days  of  Ar 
istotle  and  Cicero  to  those  of  Madison  and  Hamilton,  Jay 
and  Marshall,  Webster  and  Calhoun ;  and  he  would  just 
as  soon  have  supposed  it  impossible  that  two  persons  of 
opposite  sexes  could  live  in  nuptial  harmony,  as  he  would 
have  attached  his  faith  to  that  essentially  identical  one 
which,  asserts,  "  I  believe  this  government  can  not  perma 
nently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect 
the  Union  to  be  dissolved ;  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to 
fall ;  but  I  do  expect  that  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It 
will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the 
opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  farther  spread  of  it, 
and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  be 
lief  that  it  is  in  a  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  ad 
vocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  law 
ful  in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as 
South."  Mr.  Douglas  as  little  believed  with  the  moon 
struck  abstractionists  of  New  England  that  freedom  and 
social  happiness  could  not  possibly  subsist  in  a  country 
inhabited  by  races  in  several  material  respects  distinguish 
able  from  each  other,  without  the  absolute  blending  of 
all  the  members  of  them  both  in  one  homogeneous  misce- 
genating  mass,  as  he  did  with  the  swelling  and  pompous 
slaveholding  rhetorician  of  the  South  that  the  republic 
would  never  see  perfect  repose  until  he  should  have  the 
happiness  of  hearing  "read  the  muster-roll  of  Ms  slaves  at 
the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument}'1 

The  contest  for  the  senatorial  toga  in  Illinois,  in  the 
year  1858,  attracted  far  more  attention  than  any  similar 

L2 


250  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

struggle  has  ever  commanded.  The  Republican  party, 
some  of  the  members  of  which  had  been  on  several  occa 
sions,  during  Mr.  Douglas's  conflicts  on  the  floor  of  Con 
gress  with  the  pro-slavery  champions,  heard  to  express 
more  or  less  of  sympathy  for  the  fearless  and  indomita 
ble  champion  of  non-intervention,  could  not  forego  the 
tempting  opportunity  now  presented  of  taking  advantage 
of  the  feud  which  existed  in  the  Democratic  party  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  an  additional  senator  of  their  now 
rapidly  growing  faction  from  the  great  Northwestern 
state  which  Mr.  Douglas  had  so  long  and  so  faithfully 
represented.  This  party  now  brought  forward,  as  its 
champion  in  the  contest  just  commencing,  a  man  who 
has  since  acquired  much  fame,  and  has  left  behind  him. 
many  claims  to  the  enduring  respect  and  kindness  of  his 
countrymen.  I  shall  hereafter  have  occasion  to  speak 
much  of  this  remarkable  personage — sometimes  in  ap 
proval,  sometimes  in  condemnation ;  but  I  am  glad  to 
know  that  I  shall  be  saved  from  the  task  of  indulging  in 
language  of  harsh  reprobation  or  of  unkind  decrial  in 
reference  to  one  over  whose  recent  untimely  fate  the 
whole  republic  has  profoundly  grieved,  and  the  foul  and 
barbarous  manner  of  whose  "taking  off"  has  filled  the 
bosoms  of  all  civilized  people  with  sentiments  of  the 
most  lively  horror  and  resentment.  At  present  I  shall 
only  notice  one  or  two  material  facts  connected  with  this 
canvass,  for  which  the  worthy  individual  to  whom  I  have 
just  alluded  had  not  the  smallest  responsibility.  The 
first  of  these  facts  is,  that  a  Democratic  administration 
openly  and  unblushingly  employed  its  official  patronage 
in  Illinois  to  defeat,  if  possible,  the  re-election  to  the  na- 


FEDERAL  PATRONAGE  THROWN  AGAINST  DOUGLAS.    251 

tional  Senate  of  the  ablest  and  most  effective  champion 
of  the  Democratic  cause  who  was  now  any  where  on  the 
public  stage.  The  second  fact  to  which  I  shall  allude  In 
passing  is,  that  the  exclusive  pro-slavery  champions  ev 
ery  where  in  the  South  publicly  avowed  their  earnest  de 
sire,  and  apparently,  too,  with  general  popular  approval, 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  be  chosen  to  the  Senate  instead 
of  Mr.  Douglas.  How  could  the  South  reasonably  ex 
pect  to  be  defended  hereafter  by  the  Democratic  states 
men  of  the  North  against  abolition  assailment,  when  she 
could  be  thus  deluded  into  ungenerous,  impolitic,  and 
positively  ungrateful  conduct  toward  the  most  fearless 
and  gifted  of  her  Northern  Democratic  defenders  ?  In 
spite  of  all  the  adverse  circumstances  brought  into  opera 
tion  against  him,  Mr.  Douglas  was  re-elected  to  the  Sen 
ate  by  a  small  majority,  and  in  a  short  time  was  able  to 
show  himself  once  more  in  that  body,  where  very  speed 
ily  he  subjected  to  just  responsibility  several  of  the  most 
leading  of  those  senators  who  had  enlisted  in  the  unman 
ly  and  disreputable  conspiracy  for  his  overthrow. 

And  now  do  we  not  see  a  cause  of  future  political 
weakness  to  the  South,  and  her  manifest  exposure  to  mul 
tiplied  future  ills,  which  a  provident  sagacity  might  have 
averted,  and  the  detrimental  influence  of  which,  attrib 
utable  mainly  to  unprovoked  injustice,  and  an  almost  un 
precedented  want  of  magnanimity  and  true  manliness, 
might  easily  have  been  counteracted,  if  persistent  folly 
and  persecuting  malice  had  in  good  season  given  way  to 
returning  equity  and  true  heroism  of  spirit?  As  the 
Father  of  Poesy  paints  Achilles  retiring  indignantly  to 
his  tent,  and  his  valiant  myrmidonic  legions  withdrawn 


252  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

from  the  contest  between  the  invading  Grecian  host  and 
Troy,  almost  ready  to  succumb  to  her  surrounding  foes, 
in  consequence  of  the  arrogance  and  overbearing  selfish 
ness  of  Agamemnon  and  those  subjected  to  his  sway,  so 
shall  w.e  perhaps  see  the  all-indomitable  Douglas  and  his 
multitudinous  friends  in  the  North  driven,  in  the  sequel, 
to  the  assumption  of  an  attitude  of  cold  and  murky  neu 
trality,  or  to  the  indignant  abandonment  of  a  cause  which 
had  lost,  to  their  view,  so  much  of  its  pristine  dignity,  to 
gether  with  its  claims  to  sympathy  and  support. 

But  there  were  other  causes  besides  which  were  now 
operating  against  the  interests  of  peace  and  true  brother 
hood,  the  malign  influence  of  which  was  in  no  respect 
ascribable  to  "antagonisms  imbedded  in  the  very  nature 
of  our  heterogeneous  institutions,"  to  which  I  shall  now 
give  a  passing  notice. 

All  unprejudiced  men  will  admit  that  the  Indecorous 
and  ruffianly  assault  which  had  been  made,  several  years 
anterior  to  the  period  we  have  now  under  review,  upon 
a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate  from  Massachu 
setts,  Mr.  Sumner,  by  a  heady  and  indiscreet  member  of 
the  House  of  Eepresentatives  from  the  State  of  South 
Carolina,  under  circumstances  of  an  extremely  aggravated 
character,  exerted,  as  was  to  be  anticipated,  a  most  poten 
tial  influence  in  alienating  the  minds  of  humane  and  en 
lightened  men  in  the  free  states  of  the  Union  from  a 
cause  which  it  was  now  plainly  asserted  sought,  in  its 
desperation,  to  sustain  itself  and  perpetuate  its  existence 
by  means  which  even  the  untutored  savages  of  the  forest 
would  have  disdained  to  employ ;  and  though  this  un 
pardonable  outrage  was  alike  disapproved  by  all  men 


ASSAULT  UPON  MR.  SUMNER — DRED  SCOTT  DECISION.  253 

of  proper  social  refinement  and  of  true  manliness  of  sen 
timent  alike  in  the  South  as  in  the  North,  yet  was  it 
plausibly  attributed  by  excited  orators  and  editors  of 
sectional  newspapers  in  the  free  states  to  the  hated  "  in 
stitution"  of  slavery.  Thus  was  the  whole  South  made 
to  suffer  the  penalties  of  an  act  of  blood  and  violence  for 
which  nine  tenths  of  her  high-toned  and  chivalrous  pop 
ulation  would  have  disdained  to  assume  the  responsibility. 
The  celebrated  judicial  decision  in  the  Dred  Scott  case, 
however  sound  may  be  both  the  conclusions  to  which  a 
majority  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  had,  after 
full  argument,  arrived,  as  well  as  the  reasoning  by  which 
those  conclusions  were  supported,  had  been  most  delete 
rious  in  its  influence  upon  the  popular  mind  in  both  sec 
tions.  Among  the  opponents  of  slavery  in  the  North  a 
suspicion  had  arisen  that  the  case  in  which  this  important 
adjudication  had  been  rendered  had  been  adroitly  gotten 
up  for  the  occasion,  and  that  the  whole  affair  was,  in  fact, 
a  mere  political  device  of  the  pro-slavery  zealots  to  bol 
ster  up  a  feeble  and  sinking  system  against  the  assaults 
which  all  Christendom  was  leveling  at  it.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  this  view  of  the  matter,  so  well  calculated 
to  bring  the  highest  judicial  tribunal  into  contempt,  and 
thus  in  some  degree  to  discredit  and  subject  to  moral  en- 
feeblement  the  whole  frame  of  government  of  which  the 
judiciary  was  so  important  an  integral  part,  was  strong 
ly  sustained  by  a  portion  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  inaugural 
speech,  which,  though  it  did  not  attract  any  very  special 
attention  at  the  time  of  its  delivery,  yet,  when  the  opin 
ions  of  the  judges  had  been 'given  publicity,  were  sup 
posed  to  indicate  a  secret  understanding  and  arrange- 


254  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

merit  between  the  judges  and  the  incoming  executive,  to 
some  extent  justifying  a  fear  that  this  "more  than  Am- 
phictyonic  Council"  (to  repeat  the  descriptive  language 
which  Mr.  Pinckney  on  a  memorable  occasion  applied  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Union)  was  about  to  become  a 
mere  ministerial  chamber  in  which  to  register  executive 
edicts.  The  words  of  the  inaugural  referred  to  were  as 
follows : 

"A  difference  of  opinion  has  arisen  in  regard  to  the 
point  of  time  when  the  people  of  a  territory  shall  decide 
this  question  for  themselves. 

"  This  is,  happily,  a  matter  of  but  little  practical  im 
portance.  Besides,  it  is  a  judicial  question,  which  legiti 
mately  belongs  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  before  whom  it  is  now  pending,  and  will,  it  is  un 
derstood,  be  speedily  and  finally  settled.  To  this  decision,  in 
common  with  all  good  citizens,  I  shall  cheerfully  submit." 

While  such  was  the  state  of  feeling  in  the  North  in  re 
gard  to  the  action  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  a  very  opposite  one  was  unfortunately  awakened 
among  the  pro-slavery  devotees  of  the  South,  among 
whom  a  strong  sentiment  of  exultation  was  apparent,  as 
at  the  accomplishment  of  a  signal  triumph  achieved  over 
their  abolition  foes.  With  all  three  of  the  departments 
of  government  now  apparently  enlisted  in  the  cause  of 
maintaining  and  diffusing  African  slavery,  while  numer 
ous  Southern  presses  and  innumerable  local  orators  were 
rejoicing  over  this  happy  state  of  things,  and  anticipating 
the  rapid  spread  of  slavery  into  every  part  of  the  Amer 
ican  continent  where  climate  and  soil  were  at  all  adapted 
to  it,  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  certain  enterprising 


ATTEMPT  TO  KEOPEN  THE  AFRICAN  SLAVE-TKADE.    255 

and  over-excited  persons  should  have  judged  that  a  fa 
vorable  opportunity  had  arisen  for  reopening  the  African 
slave-trade.  Some  of  the  leading  men  of  the  South,  in 
point  of  fact,  about  this  period  became  the  open  advo 
cates  of  the  revival  of  this  nefarious  traffic.  Many  news 
papers,  edited  by  the  unscrupulous  agents  of  party,  in  sev 
eral  of  the  slaveholding  states,  earnestly  advocated  this 
accursed  policy.  The  Commercial  Convention,  which  as 
sembled  in  the  city  of  Yicksburg  in  the  month  of  May, 
1859,  and  which  contained  representatives  from  nearly 
all  the  cotton-growing  states  of  the  Union,  after  a  long 
and  heated  debate,  adopted  resolutions  denouncing  the 
law  which  prohibited  the  carrying  on  of  this  traffic  as  pi 
racy,  as  alike  unconstitutional  and  impolitic,  and  declared 
the  wish  of  that  body  that  this  infernal  trade  should  bo 
renewed  by  the  South,  in  despite  of  the  constitutional  ob 
stacles  which  had  before  that  time  been  supposed  to  ex 
ist  thereto.  The  discussions  in  the  Convention  on  this 
important  question  were  of  a  most  heated  and  violent 
character.  I  heard  these  debates,  and  took  some  part 
in  them  also,  in  warm  and  indignant  opposition  to  the 
policy  proposed,  which  is  all  that  I  shall  now  say  of  my 
own  action  on  this  occasion.  The  leading  advocate  for 
the  policy  mentioned  was  Mr.  Spratt,  of  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  whose  fervid  and  ingenious  oration  in  support 
of  this  radical  innovation  upon  the  existing  regulations 
of  the  government,  containing  the  startling  proposition 
that  it  had  become  necessary  that  slavery  should  assume 
an  aggressive  attitude,  was,  a  few  days  after  the  close  of  the 
Convention,  a  second  time  fulminated  in  the  capital  of  the 
State.  Mississippi,  in  presence  of  an  earnestly-approv- 


256  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

ing  audience,  consisting,  in  part,  of  influential  personages 
who  had  held,  as  some  of  them  were  then  doing,  the  high 
est  official  positions  in  the  state.  The  timely  and  ener 
getic  efforts  of  Chief  Justice  Sharkey  and  others,  who  im 
mediately  convoked  large  public  meetings,  which  they 
addressed,  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Spratt's  seductive  commer 
cial  theory,  in  a  week  or  two  roused  so  much  indignation 
among  the  slaveholding  class  in  Central  Mississippi  (a 
class,  by-the-by,  ever  more  discreet  and  moderate  in  spirit 
and  in  action  than  the  noisy  and,  in  general,  unscrupu 
lous  non-slaveliolding  champions  who  assumed  to  repre 
sent  them)  that  the  political  managers  of  the  Democratic 
party  deemed  it  wise  to  refuse  the  propounding  of  this 
new  political  issue  at  the  State  Convention,  which  assem 
bled  in  the  city  of  Jackson  a  few  weeks  subsequent  to 
the  proceedings  which  have  just  been  recited.  Of  course, 
though,  the  action  of  the  Commercial  Convention,  and 
the  agitations  in  favor  of  reopening  the  slave-traffic,  to 
gether  with  the  fact  that  a  considerable  number  of  newly- 
imported  savages  from  the  western  coast  of  Africa  were 
being  brought  in  at  various  Southern  ports,  and  scattered 
over  the  cotton  and  sugar  growing  region,  were  duly 
made  known  in  the  North,  and  had  a  most  unhappy  in 
fluence  in  adding  to  and  in  inflaming  sectional  rancor  in 
that  quarter  of  the  Union. 

Almost  contemporaneously  with  these  extraordinary 
movements,  the  memorable  rescuing  occurrence  took  place 
in  the  bosom  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  out  of  which,  it  will  be 
recollected,  arose  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  that  im 
portant  commonwealth  the  important  question  of  the  va 
lidity  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  It  was  well  known  that 


GOVERNOR   CHASE.  257 

the  present  Chief  Justice  Chase,  then  governor  of  this  in 
telligent  and  populous  state,  was  taking  all  legitimate 
steps  to  procure  a  decision  of  the  highest  appellate  court 
of  Ohio  against  the  constitutionality  of  that  law,  the  pas 
sage  of  which  he  had  strenuously  opposed  in  Congress, 
and  doubtless  under  the  most  conscientious  convictions 
of  public  duty.  For  some  time  it  was  regarded  as  ex 
ceedingly  doubtful  in  what  manner  this  grave  and  mo 
mentous  question  might  be  decided — the  more  grave  and 
momentous  by  reason  of  the  well-known  fact  that  Gov 
ernor  Chase  had  announced  his  determination  to  back  up 
the  action  of  the  Supreme  Court  by  arms  against  the  whole 
power  of  the  general  government,  should  the  judges  of 
that  high  tribunal  decide  the  law  to  be  a  nullity.  The 
present  accomplished  and  able  Justice  Swayne  (now  also 
a  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States) 
argued  the  case,  and  with  the  most  consummate  "ability, 
before  the  court  by  which  it  was  to  be  decided,  and,  a 
good  deal  in  opposition  to  the  prevailing  anticipation  at 
the  period,  the  decision  of  the  court  was  finally  such  as 
to  uphold  the  law  and  to  preserve  the  public  peace  of  the 
country.  It  was  my  fortune  to  be  journeying  through 
the  State  of  Ohio  at  this  period,  and  I  can  personally 
avouch  the  verity  of  the  preceding  statement  of  facts,  as 
well  as  of  the  serious  disturbance  of  the  popular  mind, 
both  North  and  South,  at  this  crisis,  by  reas9n  of  the  rap 
id  diffusion  of  the  reigning  irritation  through  the  various 
and  multiplied  channels  of  intelligence  afforded  by. the 
newspaper  press  of  the  country. 

But  this  was  not  all ;  for,  in  the  month  of  October, 
1859,  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  and  astounding  oc- 


258  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

currences  had  taken  place  in  the  bosom  of  the  "  Ancient 
Dominion,"  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  lordly  and  classic 
Potomac,  and  almost  in  sight  of  the  Capitol  of  the  repub 
lic,  which  has  ever  been  recorded  in  history.  The  fear 
ful  movement  of  the  celebrated  Spartacus,  who  suddenly 
called  into  existence  a  general  servile  insurrection  in  It 
aly,  that  at  one  time  threatened  to  destroy  Eome  itself, 
and  which  it  cost  many  thousand  valuable  Roman  lives 
to  suppress,  scarcely  smote  upon  the  popular  mind  of 
that  region  more  powerfully  than  the  intelligence  which 
one  morning,  only  six  years  ago,  was  communicated  to 
the  American  people  by  fast-flying  telegraphic  dispatch 
es,  that  Ossawatomie  Broion,  with  a  furious  band  of  aboli 
tion  outlaws,  had  suddenly  seized  upon  the  government 
arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry ;  had  fired  twice  into  the  ex 
press-train  passing  through  this  town ;  had  dispatched  a 
large  number  of  rifles  into  Maryland ;  had  cut  the  tele 
graphic  wires,  so  as  to  preclude  the  distribution  of  intel 
ligence  touching  the  alarming  scenes  in  progress;  had 
seized  many  white  citizens,  and  impressed  them  into  the 
service  of  the  conspirators,  and  a  still  larger  number  of 
negroes;  and  had  proclaimed  the  universal  freedom  of  the 
Hacks,  and  the  general  massacre  of  the  white  population  of 
Virginia,  and  of  the  whole  South,  who  should  presume  to 
resist  their  hostile  assaults.  Brennus,  in  the  Eoman  Fo 
rum  ;  Alaric  or  Attila,  swooping  down  with  resistless  force 
upon  the  fair  plains  of  France  and  Italy ;  Genseric,  with 
his  Yandalic  marauding  soldiery,  rapidly  approaching  the 
piled-up  treasures  of  the  boasted  metropolis  of  the  Euro 
pean  continent ;  Mahomet,  and  his  fierce  fanatical  suc 
cessors,  menacing  the  whole  Christian  world,  had  not 


OSSAWATOMIE  BROWN.  259 

awakened  a  more  lively  feeling  of  consternation  than 
now  ensued. 

The  sanguinary  scenes  which  soon  had  their  progress 
at  Harper's  Ferry,  or  in  the  neighborhood  of  that  town, 
are  already  graphically  familiar  to  the  public  mind  every 
where ;  and  the  grim  hero  who  initiated  this  carnival  of 
death  has  already  found  earnest  biographers,  and  has  even 
become  the  subject  of  encomiastic  homage  of  late,  both  in 
slip-shod  fustian  prose,  and  doggerel  lugubrious  verse.  I 
have  no  taste  for  such  sickening  details  as  have  had  cur 
rency,  in  regard  either  to  the  conflict  of  arms,  which  re 
sulted  ultimately  in  the  capture  of  the  wretched  enthusiast 
Brown  and  several  of  his  associates,  or  in  relation  to  the 
execution  of  these  persons  which  very  soon  after  took 
place.  I  shall  content  myself  with  laying  before  my 
readers  the  programme  of  action  adopted  by  the  ill-fated 
Brown  and  his  allies  in  crime,  which  has  since  been  au 
thentically  published. 

CONSTITUTION,  ETC.,  ETC. 

"PREAMBLE.  —  Whereas  slavery,  throughout  its  entire 
existence  in  the  United  States,  is  none  other  than  the 
most  barbarous,  unprovoked,  and  unjustifiable  war  of  one 
portion  of  its  citizens  against  another  portion,  the  only 
conditions  of  which  are  perpetual  imprisonment  and 
hopeless  servitude,  or  absolute  extermination,  in  utter 
disregard  and  violation  of  those  eternal  and  self-evident 
truths  set  forth  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence  : 
•  "  Therefore,  We,  the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  oppressed  people  who,  by  a  recent  decision  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  are  declared  to  have  no  rights  which  the 


260  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

white  man  is  bound  to  respect,  together  with  all  the  oth 
er  people  degraded  by  the  laws  thereof,  do,  for  the  time 
being,  ordain  and  establish  for  ourselves  the  following 
provisional  Constitution  and  ordinances,  the  better  to  pro 
tect  our  people,  property,  lives,  and  liberties,  and  to  gov 
ern  our  actions. 

"Art.  I.  Qualifications  of  Membership. — All  persons  of 
mature  age,  whether  proscribed,  oppressed,  and  enslaved 
citizens,  or  of  proscribed  and  oppressed  races  of  the 
United  States,  who  shall  agree  to  sustain  and  enforce  the 
provisional  Constitution  and  ordinances  of  organization, 
together  with  all  minor  children  of  such  persons,  shall  be 
held  to  be  fully  entitled  to  protection  under  the  same." 

"Art.  XXYIII.  Property. — All  captured  or  confisca 
ted  property,  and  all  property  the  product  of  the  labor 
of  those  belonging  to  this  organization  and  of  their  fam 
ilies,  shall  be  held  as  the  property  of  the  whole  equally, 
without  distinction,  and  may  be  used  for  the  common 
benefit,  or  disposed  of  for  the  same  object.  And  any 
person,  officer  or  otherwise,  who  shall  improperly  retain, 
secrete,  use,  or  needlessly  destroy  such  property,  or  any 
property  found,  captured,  or  confiscated,  belonging  to  the 
enemy,  'or  shall  willfully  neglect  to  render  a  full  and  fair 
statement  of  such  property  by  him  so  taken  or  held,  shall 
be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and,  on  conviction,  shall  be 
punished  accordingly. 

"Art.  XXIX.  Safety  or  Intelligence  Fund.— All  mon- 
ey,  plate,  watches,  or  jewelry  captured  by  honorable  war 
fare,  found,' taken,  or  confiscated,  belonging  to  the  enemy, 
shall  be  held  sacred,  to  constitute  a  liberal  safety  or  in 
telligence  fund ;  and  any  person  who  shall  improperly  re- 


PKOGKAMME   OF  BROWN.  261 

tain,  dispose  of,  hide,  use,  or  destroy  such  money  or  other 
articles  above  named,  contrary  to  the  provisions  and  spir 
it  of  this  article,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  theft,  and,  on 
conviction  thereof,  shall  be  punished  accordingly.  The 
treasurer  shall  furnish  the  commander-in-chief  at  all  times 
with  a  full  statement  of  the  condition  of  such  fund  and 
its  nature." 

Art.  XXXIII.  Volunteers. — AH  persons  who  may  come 
forward,  and  shall  voluntarily  deliver  up  slaves,  and  have 
their  names  registered  on  the  books  of  this  organization, 
shall,  so  long  as  they  continue  at  peace,  be  entitled  to  the 
fullest  protection  in  person  and  property,  though  not 
connected  with,  this  organization,  and  shall  be  treated  as 
friends,  and  not  merely  as  persons  neutral. 

"  Art.  XXXIY.  Neutrals. — The  persons  and  property 
of  all  non-slaveholders,  who  shall  remain  absolutely  neu 
tral,  shall  be  respected  so  far  as  circumstances  will  allow 
of  it,  but  they  shall  not  be  entitled  to  any  active  protec 
tion." 

"Art.  XXXVI.  Property  confiscated. — The  entire  per 
sonal  and  real  property  of  all  persons  known  to  be  act 
ing,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  with  or  for  the  enemy, 
or  found  in  arms  with  them,  or  found  willfully  holding 
slaves,  shall  be  confiscated  and  taken,  wherever  and  when 
ever  it  may  be  found,  in  either  free  or  slave  states." 

"Art.  XL VI.  These  Articles  not  for  the  Overthrow  of 
Government. — The  foregoing  articles  shall  not  be  con 
strued  so  as  in  any  way  to  encourage  the  overthrow  of 
any  state  government  or  of  the  general  government  of 
the  United  States,  and  look  to  no  dissolution  of  the  Un 
ion,  but  simply  to  amendment  and  repeal ;  and  our  flag 


262  SCYLLA   AND   CHARYBDIS. 

shall  be  the  same  that  our  fathers  fought  under  in  the 
Kevolution." 

It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  tell  what  would  have  been 
the  wisest  course  for  the  government  of  Virginia  to  pur 
sue  at  this  conjuncture.  Brown  and  his  confederates  had 
all  unquestionably  forfeited  their  lives,  and  neither  the 
justice  nor  legality  of  putting  them  to  death  could  be  de 
nied.  Under  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  it  seems  to 
me  at  present  that  it  would  have  been  more  politic  to 
spare  the  lives  of  these  guilty  offenders,  than  by  an  ex 
citing  trial  and  public  execution,  under  such  circum 
stances  as  were  connected  with  the  occasion,  to  convert 
them,  in  the  estimation  of  thousands  of  the  ignorant  and 
the  fanatical,  into  martyrs.  Certain  it  is  that,  anterior  to 
the  death  of  Brown,  there  were  no  striking  indications  of 
awakened  sympathy  to  be  found  in  any  part  of  the  North. 
I  well  remember  being  called  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  during 
the  month  of  December,  1859  (in  which  month  Brown 
suffered  the  penalties  of  the  law),  for  the  delivery  of  a 
lecture  on  the  value  of  the  Federal  Union,  and  containing 
admonitory  warnings  of  the  dangers  which  seemed  to  my 
mind  to  be  connected  with  the  coming  presidential  elec 
tion.  This  lecture  was  pronounced  before  the  Mercan 
tile  Association  of  Cincinnati,  on  the  night  before  Brown's 
mortal  career  was  to  be  closed  at  Charlestown,Yirginia. 
On  the  very  day  of  his  execution,  I  was  journeying  to 
Evansville  for  the  purpose  of  there  repeating  the  lecture 
referred  to ;  on  the  next  day  I  was  on  my  way  to  Indian 
apolis  for  a  similar  purpose ;  and  still,  on  the  succeeding 
one,  with  a  like  duty  before  me,  to  be  performed  in  the 
city  of  St.  Louis.  I  had  a  most  ample  opportunity  of 


BROWN  MADE  A  MARTYR,  UNWISELY.  263 

testing  the  condition  of  the  popular  mind  in  regard  to 
Brown  and  his  attempted  achievements,  and  I  do  now 
conscientiously  aver  that,  in  the  whole  course  of  my  jour- 
neyings,  I  did  not  meet  with  one  single  man,  one  single 
woman,  or  one  single  child  who  appeared  to  have  the 
least  respect  or  sympathy  for  John  Brown. 

The  actings  of  this  fierce  and  bloody  monster  must,  I 
suppose  though,  be  now  recognized  as  one  of  a  series  of 
events  predestined  to  occur  from  the  foundation  of  the  ivorld, 
as  part  and  portion  of  an  "irrepressible  conflict  between 
opposing  and  enduring  forces ;"  and  we  must  be  content  to 
look  back  upon  the  same  as  matters  which  belong  not  to 
the  ordinary  concerns  of  earth,  chargeable  either  to  dis 
cretion  and  virtue,  or  to  the  want  of  these  attributes,  but 
to  the  mysterious  ordinations  of  Divinity,  entitled  to 
challenge  our  unqualified  respect  and  homage.  The 
storm  of  sectional  hostility  began  by  this  time  to  rage 
most  furiously  all  over  the  land ;  for 

"Every  mountain  now  had  found  a  voice, 
And  Jura  answered  from  her  misty  shroud 
Back  to  the  joyous  Alps  who  called  to  her  aloud!" 


264  SCYLLA  AND   CHAliYBDIS, 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

Other  Causes  of  sectional  Excitement  at  this  Period. — The  Helper  Book, 
and  its  unfortunate  Discussioa  in  Congress.  —  Resolutions  forced 
through  the  Senate,  mainly  though  the  Agency  of  Mr.  Davis,  of  Missis 
sippi,  having  in  View  the  double  Object  of  destroying  Mr.  Douglas,  and 
dragging  the  Democratic  Party  into  an  unnational  and  aggressive  At 
titude. — Movements  of  William  L.  Yancey  in  the  Year  1859,  and  early 
in  the  Year  18GO,  having  in  View  the  breaking  up  of  the  Federal  Union 
in  the  event  of  a  Republican  President  being  elected. — Efforts  in  the 
South  to  bring  about  the  Election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  order  to  obtain 
the  desired  Object. — Democratic  Conventions  at  Charleston  and  Balti 
more  reviewed. — Leading  Incidents  of  the  Presidential  Canvass  of  1860 
and  its  Results. — Sketch  of  William  L.  Yancey. 

WE  now  nearly  approach  the  momentous  presidential 
election  of  1860,  upon  the  result  of  which  so  much  of  the 
weal  or  woe  of  the  republic  was  fated  to  depend.  The 
session  of  Congress  immediately  preceding  that  contest 
was  more  than  ordinarily  marked  with  excitement.  The 
fierce  discussion  of  the  merits  of  a  foolish  fanatical  book 
(issued  -a  short  time  before  by  an  obscure  and  ignorant 
person  in  North  Carolina)  in  the  House  of  Eepresenta- 
tives,  so  unwisely  and  unprofitably  brought  on  at  the  in 
stance  of  Mr.  Clarke,  of  Missouri,  and  the  debate  upon 
the  Brown  conspiracy,  allusions  to  which  have  already 
been  made,  were  but  preliminary  to  still  more  fervid 
controversies  in  the  Democratic  Presidential  Convention, 
and  before  the  people  in  their  primary  capacity.  Sever 
al  movements  besides,  having  no  great  importance  but  as 


ATTEMPTS  TO  CRUSH  DOUGLAS.  265 

they  throw  more  or  less  light  upon  the  course  of  after 
events,  will  be  now  alluded  to.  In  the  Territory  of  New 
Mexico,  where  no  reasonable  being  ever  yet  supposed 
that  the  system  of  African  slavery,  if  it  ever  should  be 
forcibly  carried  there,  could  long  have  a  healthful  and 
vigorous  existence,  by  reason  of  the  unpropitious  charac 
ter  both  of  the  soil  and  climate  of  that  region,  as  Mr. 
"Webster,  before  his  decease,  had  so  clearly  demonstrated, 
legislative  enactments,  manifestly  prompted  from  Wash 
ington  City,  and  which  could  only  be  productive  of  in 
creased  sectional  rancor,  had  been  some  months  before 
adopted,  protective  of  slaveholding  rights  in  said  territory. 
With  a  view  of  making  the  pro-slavery  party  in  the  Sen 
ate  triumphant  over  Mr.  Douglas  and  non-intervention, 
certain  resolutions  were  dispatchfully  forced  through  that 
body,  the  principal  of  which  were  as  follows  : 

"  Resolved,  That  neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  Leg 
islature,  whether  by  direct  legislation  or  legislation  of  an 
indirect  and  unfriendly  character,  possesses  power  to  an 
nul  or  impair  the  constitutional  right  of  any  citizen  of 
the  United  States  to  take  his  slave  property  into  the 
common  territories,  and  there  hold  and  enjoy  the  same 
while  the  territorial  condition  remains. 

"  Resolved,  That  if  experience  should  at  any  time  prove 
that  the  judicial11  and  executive  authority  do  not  possess 
means  to  insure  adequate  protection  to  constitutional 
rights  in  a  territory,  and  if  the  territorial  government 
should  fail  or  refuse  to  provide  the  necessary  remedies 
for  that  purpose,  it  will  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  sup 
ply  such  deficiency. 

"Resolved,  That  the  inhabitants  of  a  territory  of  the 
M 


266  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

United  States,  when  they  rightfully  form  a  Constitution 
to  be  admitted  as  a  state  into  the  Union,  may  then  for 
the  first  time,  like  the  people  of  a  state  when  forming  a 
new  Constitution,  decide  for  themselves  whether  slavery, 
as  a  domestic  institution,  shall  be  maintained  or  prohib 
ited  within  their  jurisdiction ;  and  they  shall  be  admitted 
into  the  Union  with  or  without  slavery  as  their  Consti 
tution  may  prescribe  at  the  time  of  their  admission." 

These  resolutions,  with  others,  had  been  pressed  to 
adoption  mainly  by  the  exertions  of  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis; 
and  Mr.  Douglas  having  been  regularly  voted  in  senato 
rial  Democratic  caucus  to  be  no  longer  worthy  of  being 
recognized  as  a  Democratic  senator — a  resolution  for  this 
purpose  having  been  introduced  by  Mr.  Slidell,  of  Louis 
iana  (avowedly  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Buchanan) — the 
scene  of  contention  was  shifted  to  Charleston,  South  Car 
olina,  in  which  city  it  had  been  agreed  that  the  next  Na 
tional  Democratic  Convention  should  assemble.  Before 
the  session  of  this  body  commenced,  several  other  occur 
rences  had  taken  place,  which  are  necessary  now  to  be 
noticed. 

In  the  month  of  January,  1860,  Mr.  William  L.  Yan- 
cey,  of  Alabama,  had  delivered  a  speech,  which  had,  as  a 
printed  pamphlet,  been  widely  circulated,  in  which  he 
had  said : 

"To  obtain  the  aid  of  the  Democracy  in  this  contest, 
it  is  necessary  to  make  a  contest  in  its  Charleston  Con 
vention.  In  that  body,  Douglas's  adherents  will  press 
his  doctrine  to  a  decision.  If  the  state-rights  men  keep 
out  of  that  Convention,  that  decision  must  inevitably  be 
against  the  South,  and  that  either  in  direct  favor  of  the 


WILLIAM  L.  YANCEY,  THE  ORACLE  OF  SECESSION.  267 

Douglas  doctrine,  or  by  the  indorsement  of  the  Cincin 
nati  platform,  under  which  Douglas  claims  shelter  for  his 
principles.  The  state-rights  men  should  present  in  that 
Convention  their  demand  for  a  decision,  and  they  will 
obtain  an  indorsement  of  their  demands  or  a  denial  of 
these  demands.  If  indorsed,  we  shall  have  greater  hope 
of  triumph  within  the  Union.  If  denied,  in  my  opinion, 
the  state-rights  wing  should  secede  from  the  Convention, 
and  appeal  to  the  whole  people  of  the  South,  without  dis 
tinction  of  parties,  and  organize  another  Convention  upon 
the  basis  of  their  principles,  and  go  into  the  election  with 
a  candidate  nominated  by  it  as  a  grand  constitutional 
party.  But  in  the  presidential  contest  a  Black  Eepub- 
lican  may  be  elected.  If  this  dire  event  should  happen, 
in  my  opinion,  the  only  hope  of  safety  for  the  South  is  a 
withdrawal  from  the  Union  before  he  shall  be  inaugura 
ted — before  the  sword  and  the  treasury  of  the  Federal 
government  shall  be  placed  in  the  keeping  of  that  party. 
I  would  suggest  that  the  several  state  Legislatures  should 
by  law  require  the  governor,  when  it  shall  be  made  man 
ifest  that  the  Black  Eepublican  candidate  for  the  presi 
dency  shall  receive  a  majority  of  the  electoral  vote,  to 
call  a  Convention  of  the  people  of  the  state  to  assemble 
in  time  to  provide  for  their  safety  before  the  4th  of 
March,  1860.  If,  however,  a  Black  Eepublican  should 
not  be  elected,  then,  in  pursuance  of  the  policy  of  making 
this  contest  within  the  Union,  we  should  initiate  meas 
ures  in  Congress  which  should  lead  to  a  repeal  of  all  the 
unconstitutional  acts  against  slavery.  If  we  should  fail 
to  obtain  so  just  a  system  of  legislation,  then  the  South 
should  seek  her  independence  out  of  the  Union."  (Ap 
plause.) 


268  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

In  another  speech,  delivered  at  Columbia,  South  Caro 
lina,  in  July,  1860,  Mr.  Yancey  had  said : 

"But  the  true  question  is  not,  are  we  stronger  than 
we  have  been,  but  are  we  as  strong  as  our  necessities  re 
quire?  Are  we  as  strong  as  we  rightfully  ought  to  be? 
This  question  must  be  answered  in  the  negative.  Can 
we  have  any  hope  of  righting  ourselves  and  doing  justice 
to  ourselves  in  the  Union?  If  there  is  such  hope,  it 
would  be  our  duty  to  make  the  attempt.  For  one,  I  have 
no  such  hope,  but  I  am  determined  to  act  with  those  who 
have  such  hope,  as  long,  and  only  as  long,  as  it  may  be 
reasonably  indulged ;  not  so  much  with  any  expectation 
that  the  South  will  obtain  justice  in  the  Union,  as  with 
the  hope  that  by  thus  acting,  within  a  reasonable  time, 
there  will  be  obtained  unity  among  our  people  in  going 
out  of  the  Union."  (Applause.)  "If  we  remain  in  the 
Union,  we  must  demand  a  repeal  of  every  unconstitu 
tional  act  against  the  institution  of  slavery.  "We  must 
demand  a  repeal  of  the  acts  of  1807, 1819, 1851." 

This  same  gentleman,  who  was  presently  to  become 
the  Magnus  Apollo  of  the  disorganizing  portion  of  the 
Charleston  Democratic  Convention,  had  offered  a  resolu 
tion  at  a  Commercial  Convention  which  held  its  session 
in  Montgomery,  Alabama,  in  these  words : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  laws  of  Congress  prohibiting  the 
slave-trade  ought  to  be  repealed." 

The  same  personage  had  published  a  letter  in  June, 
1859,  which  contained  the  following  declaration : 

"  For  one,  I  am  unwilling  to  see  continued  on  our  stat 
ute-books  these  semi-abolition  acts,  but  desire  to  see  the 
subject  of  slavery  taken  from  the  grasp  of  the  Federal 


CHARLESTON  CONVENTION — CALEB  GUSHING.      269 

government,  and  that  government  only  to  be  allowed  to 
act  upon  it  to  protect  it.  Whether  the  African  slave-trade 
will  be  carried  on  should  not  depend  upon  that  govern 
ment,  but  upon  the  will  of  each  slaveholding  state.  To 
that  tribunal  alone  should  the  question  be  submitted,  and 
bj  the  decision  of  that  tribunal  alone  should  the  South 
ern  people  abide." 

And  now  let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  convention 
al  movements  both  in  Charleston  and  Baltimore,  in  which 
Mr.  Yancey  was  to  participate  so  prominently.  The 
Convention  assembled  on  the  23d  of  April,  1860,  and 
General  Francis  B.  Flournoy,  of  Arkansas,  was  chosen  as 
temporary  chairman.  The  inevitable  Caleb  Gushing,  of 
Massachusetts,  was  subsequently  made  permanent  presi 
dent  of  the  body.  This  individual  was  well  known  to  be 
confidently  expecting  at  the  time  a  position  on  the  Su 
preme  Bench  of  the  Union,  but  perfectly  well  knew  that 
he  stood  no  chance  of  appointment  unless  his  conduct  in 
the  Convention  should  be  pleasing  to  the  secession  lead 
ers,  to  whom  Mr.  Buchanan  had  virtually  transferred 
himself,  with  all  the  official  power  and  patronage  which 
he  possessed.  It  must  be  confessed  that  Mr.  Cushing  act 
ed  his  part  well  as  moderator,  nor  had  those  in  whose 
services  he  had  enlisted,  for  a  consideration,  any  reasona 
ble  ground  of  complaint  on  the  score  of  his  failing  to  per 
form  any  part  of  the  special  duties  which  had  been  pre 
scribed  for  his  observance. 

The  various  contests  which  arose  upon  the  political 
platform,  though  sufficiently  interesting  at  the  time,  are 
not  needful  here  to  be  described.  The  great  issue  be 
tween  the  two  wings  of  the  Democratic  party,  the  non- 


270  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS.  * 

intervention  and  the  intervention  members  thereof,  has 
been  already  sufficiently  explained.  A  non-intervention 
platform  having  been  adopted  by  a  decided  majority  of 
the  Convention,  the  cloven  foot  of  secession  began  at  once 
to  display  itself.  Mr.  L.  P.  "Walker,  of  Alabama,  who  was 
soon  to  become  the  Secretary  of  War  of  a  new  and  dis 
tinct  government,  and,  as  such,  was  to  have  the  doubtful 
honor  of  initiating  the  most  unnecessary  and  profitless 
war  that  has  ever  yet  been  carried  on,  arose,  and  present 
ed  the  written  instructions  which  the  Alabama  delegates 
to  the  Convention  had  brought  with  them,  received  from 
the  Democratic  Convention  of  that  state,  to  whom  the 
delegates  owed  their  appointment,  and  also  &  protest  based 
upon  said  instructions ;  after  the  presentation  and  reading 
of  which,  the  Alabama  delegation,  evidently  in  accord 
ance  with  an  arrangement  long  before  agreed  upon,  with 
drew,  as  the  instructions  under  which  they  professed  to  be 
acting  positively  ordered  them  to  do.  Mr.  Yancey  was 
among  the  delegates  of  Alabama  by  whom  this  extraor 
dinary  part  was  enacted,  and  though,  deeming  it  expe 
dient  to  keep  himself  a  little  in  reserve,  he  was  evidently 
the  ruling  spirit  in  the  proceeding.  It  was  evident  now 
that  secession  had  put  on  its  cocked  hat,  had  lashed  its 
sword  to  its  side,  and  was  ready  for  combat  to  the  death  with 
all  that  might  attempt  to  obstruct  its  long-cherished  designs  ; 
but  Caleb  Gushing  remained  still  in  his  high  and  respon 
sible  position,  and  his  neighbor  and  friend,  Mr.  B.  F.  But 
ler,  of  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  who  was  also  fighting  for 
official  advancement,  followed  his  illustrious  example. 
Next  in  order,  as  was  reasonably  to  be  expected,  was  the 
withdrawal  from  the  Convention  of  the  Mississippi  dele- 


SECESSION  ON  THE   RAMPAGE.  271 

gation.  Mr.  Glen,  of  Mississippi,  who  had  been,  to  my 
personal  knowledge,  a  flaming  disunionist  for  more  than 
ten  years,  covered  the  retreat  of  himself  and  his  co-dele 
gates  with  the  following  characteristic  speech : 

"  Sir,  at  Cincinnati  we  adopted  a  platform  on  which 
we  all  agreed.  Now  answer  me,  ye  men  of  the  North, 
of  the  East,  of  the  South,  and  of  the  West,  what  was  the 
construction  placed  upon  that  platform  in  different  sec 
tions  of  the  Union  ?  You  at  the  West  said  it  meant  one 
thing,  we  of  the  South  said  it  meant  another.  Either 
we  were  right,  or  you  were  right ;  we  were  wrong,  or  you 
were  wrong.  We  came  here  to  ask  you  which  was  right 
and  which  was  wrong.  You  have  maintained  your  po 
sition.  You  say  that  you  can  not  give  us  an  acknowl 
edgment  of  that  right  which,  I  tell  you  here  now,  in 
coming  time  will  be  your  only  safety  in  your  contests 
with  the  Black  Eepublicans  of  Ohio  and  of  the  North. 
(Cheers.) 

"  Why,  sir,  turn  back  to  the  history  of  your  own  lead 
ing  men.  There  sits  a  distinguished  gentleman,  Hon. 
Charles  E.  Stuart,  of  Michigan,  once  a  representative  of 
one  of  the  sovereign  states  of  the  Union  in  the  Senate, 
who  then  voted  that  Congress  had  the  constitutional 
power  to  pass  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  to  exclude  slav 
ery  from  the  territories;  and  now,  when  the  Supreme 
Court  has  said  that  it  has  not  that  power,  he  comes  for 
ward  and  tells  Mississippians  that  that  same  Congress  is 
impotent  to  protect  that  same  species  of  property !  There 
sits  my  distinguished  friend,  the  senator  from  Ohio  (Mr. 
Pugh),  who,  but  a  few  nights  since,  told  us  from  that 
stand  that,  if  a  territorial  government  totally  misused 


272  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

their  powers  or  abused  them,  Congress  could  wipe  out 
that  territorial  government  altogether.  And  yet,  when 
we  come  here  and  ask  him  to  give  us  protection  in  case 
that  territorial  government  robs  us  of  our  property  and 
strikes  the  star  which  answers  to  the  name  of  Mississippi 
from  the  flag  of  the  Union,  so  far  as  the  Constitution 
gives  her  protection,  he  tells  us,  with  his  hand  upon  his 
heart,  as  Governor  Payne,  of  Ohio,  had  before  done,  that 
they  will  part  with  their  lives  before  they  will  acknowl 
edge  the  principle  which  we  contend  for, 

"Gentlemen,  in  such  a  situation  of  things  in  the  Con 
vention  of  our  great  party,  it  is  right  that  we  should  part. 
Go  your  way,  and  we  will  go  ours.  The  South  leaves 
you  —  not  like  Hagar,  driven  into  the  wilderness,  friend 
less  and  alone  —  but  I  tell  Southern  men  here,  and  for 
them  I  tell  the  North,  that  in  less  than  sixty  days  you 
will  find  a  united  South  standing  side  by  side  with  us." 
(Prolonged  and  enthusiastic  cheering.) 

Next  withdrew  the  delegation  from  Louisiana,  except 
ing  two  of  them,  who  chose  to  remain.  Next  the  del 
egates  from  South  Carolina  made  good  their  retreat. 
Then  Florida  followed.  Next  went  out  the  delegation 
from  Texas.  Then  three  delegates  from  Arkansas.  Now 
the  Georgia  delegation  asked  leave  to  retire  for  the  pur 
pose  of  consultation;  no  one  having  objection  to  this, 
they  withdrew  accordingly.  Then  two  of  the  Delaware 
delegates  retired,  and  the  third  announced  his  willingness 
to  remain  for  a  season.  After  a  good  deal  of  fiery  and 
fustian  discussion  of  immaterial  points  mainly,  the  Con 
vention  commenced  balloting  for  the  nomination  of  pres 
ident.  Douglas  received  145-J-  votes ;  R  M.  T,  Hunter,  42 


THE  TWO  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTIONS.      273 

votes;  Andrew  Johnson,  12 ;  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  7;  Jo 
seph  Lane,  6;  Isaac  Toucey,  2J,  Jefferson  Davis,  IJ; 
Franklin  Pierce,  1.  Several  other  ballots  occurred ;  but 
no  one  having  obtained  a  vote  of  two  thirds,  the  Conven 
tion  adjourned,  to  meet  at  Baltimore  on  Monday,  the  18th 
day  of  June.  The  seceding  delegates,  having  adopted  an 
intervention  platform,  adjourned  to  meet  at  Kichmond  on 
the  second  Monday  of  June. 

The  majority  of  the  Convention,  who  had  agreed  to  as 
semble  in  Baltimore  on  the  18th  of  June,  met  according 
ly  ;  but  it  being  soon  ascertained  that  Douglas's  strength 
had  considerably  increased  since  the  adjournment,  the 
most  disreputable  proceeding  which  had  yet  taken  place 
occurred.  Mr.  Eussell,  of  Virginia,  one  of  the  most  expert 
political  managers  that  Virginia  has  yet  known,  Mr.  Lan 
der,  of  North  Carolina,  Mr.  Ewing,  of  Tennessee,  Mr.  John 
son,  of  Maryland,  Mr.  Smith,  of  California,  Mr.  Saulsbury, 
of  Delaware,  Mr.  Caldwel],  of  Kentucky,  and  Mr.  Clarke, 
of  Missouri,  announced  the  withdrawal  of  a  whole  or  a 
part  of  their  respectire  delegations.  Mr.  Gushing,  uneasy 
about  the  judgeship  for  which  he  was  ardently  sighing, 
all  hopes  of  which  he  must  relinquish  if  he  acquiesced  in 
the  support  of  Mr.  Douglas,  ingloriously  skedaddled*  from 
the  chairmanship  of  the  Convention,  which  then  proceed- 

*  I  trust  this  very  classic  personage,  who  I  recollect  was  formerly  ac 
customed  to  boast  of  his  having  been  the  university  associate  of  Mr.  Ban 
croft  and  other  illustrious  Cambridge  graduates,  will  excuse  my  applying 
to  him  a  term  which  is,  I  believe,  not  yet  to  be  found  in  our  English  dic 
tionaries.  It  being  a  strictly  military  term,  though,  which  has  recently 
crept  into  use,  it  is  probable  that  one  of  Mr.  Cushing's  decided  warlike 
tastes  will,  on  reflection,  perceive  the  manifest  propriety  of  my  using  this 
very  significant  word  as  faithfully  typical  of  his  sudden  exodus  from  the 

*M  2 


274  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

ed  to  ballot  for  president,  when,  Douglas  having  received 
173J-  votes,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted : 

"Resolved,  unanimously.  That  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  the 
State  of  Illinois,  having  now  received  two  thirds  of  all  the 
votes  given  in  this  Convention,  is  hereby  declared,  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  rules  governing  this  body,  and  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  uniform  customs  and  rules  of  former 
Democratic  National  Conventions,  the  regular  nominee 
of  the  Democratic  party  of  the  United  States  for  the  office 
of  President  of  the  United  States." 

Herschel  Y.  Johnson  was  afterward  nominated  for  the 
vice-presidency. 

The  Convention  of  the  seceders  met  at  Eichmond  on 
the  llth  of  June,  adjourned  to  Baltimore,  elected  Ca 
leb  Gushing*  their  president,  reaffirmed  their  interven 
tion  platform,  nominated  Breckenridge  and  Lane  for  the 

august  seat  of  moderator  of  the  Baltimore  Convention,  which  he  had  con 
tinued  to  occupy  so  long  as  he  could  be  of  service  to  his  employers. 

*  This  gentleman,  who  is  never  weary  in  well-doing,  was  luckily  on 
hand  for  this  new  directorial  position,  and  his  affection  for  his  disorgan 
izing  secession  friends  proved  itself  to  be  abiftlutely  exhaustless.  Is  it 
not  marvelous  that  Mr.  Gushing  should  afterward  have  been  among  the 
first  to  tender  his  immaculate  sword  to  President  Lincoln  as  a  commander 
of  Union  soldiery  against  those  whom  he  had  done  so  much  to  inveigle 
into  this  same  war  ?  Luckily  for  his  friend  Jefferson  Davis  and  those  as 
sociated  with  him,  this  redoubtable  champion  was  not  given  the  throat- 
cutting  employment  which  he  sought,  else  there  is  no  knowing  what  won 
drous  deeds  of  valor  he  would  have  performed.  It  is  perhaps  fortunate  for 
the  fame  of  Grant,  Sherman,  and  others,  that  the  field  of  glory  was  not 
opened  to  this  undeveloped  Napoleim,  since  no  one  who  knows  him  can 
doubt  that,  had  it  been,  he  would  have  surpassed  in  heroic  achievement  all 
that  Cajsar,  or  Hannibal,  or  Alexander  had  done.  The  last  time  I  talked 
with  Mr.  Gushing,  he  was  deliberating  whether  he  should  not  enlist  in  a  fil 
ibustering  project  on  the  Queen  of  the  Antilles.  How  it  happened  that  ho 


EXALTED  PATKIOTISM   OF  JOHN  BELL.  275 

presidency  and  the  vice  -  presidency,  and  then,  after  a 
speech  from  Mr.  Yancey,  adjourned. 

Thus  was  the  ingenious  scheme  for  the  breaking  up  of 
the  Democratic  party  as  a  national  association,  and  ren 
dering  it  utterly  powerless  for  contesting  in  the  North 
with  its  great  Eepublican  rival,  most  ingloriously  con 
summated,  and  the  way  opened  very  conveniently  for  the 
execution  thereafter,  at  a  suitable  time,  of  the  long-cher 
ished  project  of  secession  from  the  Union. 

ISTo  fact  is  better  known,  and  I  can  myself  personally 
avouch  it,  that,  had  Douglas  or  any  suitable  man  been 
nominated  in  1860  upon  a  non-intervention  or  Union 
platform  (for  really  at  this  period  they  meant  the  same 
thing),  the  American  party,  now  assuming  the  name  of 
"  The  Constitutional  Union  Party,"  would  not  have  come 
into  the  field  at  all.  Mr.  Bell,  always  preferring  the  hap 
piness  of  the  republic  to  his  personal  advancement,  would 
have  sustained  the  Democratic  ticket,  and  Douglas,  or 
some  other  non-interventionist  and  true  friend  of  the 
Federal  Union,  would  have  been  easily  elected.  Nor  do 
I  make  this  statement  as  to  Mr.  Bell  without  full  authori 
ty  ;  for  oftentimes  have  I  heard  from  the  lips  of  my  ven 
erated  neighbor  and  friend  declarations,  both  before  he 
was  nominated  for  the  presidency  and  afterward,  which 
fully  justify  me  in  what  has  been  said  upon  this  interest 
ing  point.  "Well  do  I  recollect  the  friendly  and  almost 
fraternal  interview  which  occurred  between  Mr.  Douglas 
and  Mr.  Bell,  at  my  own  mansion  in  the  city  of  Nashville, 

concluded  not  to  go  in  quest  of  immortal  fame  in  that  direction  I  have 
never  been  informed.  Perhaps  his  future  biographer  may  enlighten 


276  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

on  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  the  former  deliver 
ed  his  able  speech  in  that  city  in  the  summer  of  1860,  as 
well  as  the  eminent  magnanimity  and  patriotism  which 
breathed  in  every  word  uttered  by  either  of  them  ;  and 
I  am  well  satisfied  that  at  the  moment  when  this  meeting 
took  place,  either  of  these  personages  would,  have  rejoiced 
to  know  that  his  generous  and  high-minded  competitor 
would  be  chosen  president,  assured,  as  he  could  not  but 
be,  that  the  republic  would  be  perfectly  safe  in  such 
hands,  and  that  the  mad  war  of  sectionalism  would  be  at 
least  held  in  suppression  for  the  coming  four  years. 

And  now,  at  the  hazard  of  being  regarded  by  some  as 
a  little  egotistical,  I  find  it  convenient  to  insert  a  few 
extracts  from  one  of  many  popular  addresses  delivered 
by  me  during  the  summer  of  1860,  all  substantially  sim 
ilar — as  similar  in  views  and  spirit,  likewise,  to  various 
political  speeches  delivered  both  in  the  North  and  in  the 
South,  and  alike  by  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Bell  and  those 
of  Mr.  Douglas,  during  this  eventful  presidential  cam 
paign — which  extracts  are  inserted  here  alone  for  the  pur 
pose  of  showing  in  a  graphic  and  distinct  manner  how 
earnestly  solicitous  many  of  those  whom  we  shall,  in  less 
than  a  year,  see  drawn  into  the  vortex  of  rebellion,  were, 
five  years  ago,  to  avert  those  sad  consequences  which  have 
since  ensued,  by  the  seasonable  utterance  of  frank  and  pa 
triotic  premonitions  in  reference,  to  those  dangers  which 
to  all  sagacious  minds  already  began  to  be  most  easy  of 
descrial. 

The  political  address  referred  to  was  delivered  in  the 
city  of  Nashville,  on  Saturday,  July  7th,  1860,  at  a  meet 
ing  convened  for  the  ratification  of  the  conventional  pro- 


EFFORTS  TO   COUNTERACT  DISUNION.  277 

ceedings  in  Baltimore  which  had  resulted  in  the  nomina 
tions  already  mentioned.  (This  speech  was  printed  at  the 
time  in  the  Nashville  papers,  and  had  more  or  less  circu 
lation.) 

"Mr.  President  and  Fellow-citizens: 
u The, present  is  truly  a  grave  and  momentous  occa 
sion,  if,  indeed,  such  an  occasion  can  arise  on  this  side 
that  dread  scene  which  is  hereafter  to  bring  to  an  end  all 
the  troublous  and  varied  concerns  of  earth-born  beings. 
The  only  people  now  existing  in  the  world  who  can  with 
propriety  claim  the  full  and  unrestrained  possession  of 
civil  and  religious  freedom,  are  in  imminent  danger  of 
losing  that  freedom.  We  are  now  visibly  trembling 
upon  the  very  edge  of  that  precipice  down  which  so 
many  republics  of  ancient  and  of  modern  times  have 
tumbled  into  ruin.  Institutions,  the  wisest  and  the  best 
ever  planned  and  put  in  prosperous  exercise  by  the  chil 
dren  of  men,  are  even  now  tottering  to  their  foundations, 
and,  I  seriously  -apprehend,  are  soon  to  be  shaken  and 
convulsed  with  a  still  more  fearful  and  tempestuous  com 
motion.  The  fierce,  organized  bands  of  fanatical  aboli 
tionists  of  the  North  are  already  girding  on  their  armor 
and  making  ready  their  weapons  of  warfare  for  the  most 
exciting  and  unsparing  political  conflict  that  our  country 
has  yet  known.  The  rampant  and  furious  secessionists  of 
the  South,  inspired,  energized,  and  led  on  by  the  Yanceys 
and  the  Davises  of  this  sunny  region,  hypocritically  claim 
ing  *  equality  of  rights,'  and  vociferously  denying  all  trea 
sonable  projects,  are  aiming  at  this  moment  to  rend  the 
Union  which  we  have  so  long  loved  and  cherished,  and, 


278  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

by  the  skillful  concealment  of  their  real  purposes,  are  en 
listing  thousands  as  proselytes  and  co-operators,  who,  if 
they  were  apprised  of  the  real  objects  of  these  insidious 
and  deceptions  teachers,  would  start  back  with  horror 
and  affright  from  the  scenes  in  which  they  are  expected 
ultimately  to  bear  part.  The  old  fraternal  ties,  both  of 
church  and  state,  which  formerly  constituted  our  surest 
guarantee  of  national  repose  and  happiness,  have  been 
either  rudely  snapped  asunder,  or  are  at  this  very  instant 
violently  strained  to  their  utmost  capacity  of  tension. 
Corruption  stalks  abroad  throughout  the  whole  land,  and 
even  the  high  places  of  civic  trust  are  no  longer  free 
from  the  taint  of  impurity.  Demagogues  of  every  stamp 
and  hue,  numerous  as  the  frogs  of  Egypt,  are  heard  to 
croak  forth  here,  there,  every  where,  their  hollow  sepul 
chral  accents,  dismally  ominous  of  national  confusion  and 
ruin.  The  wholesome  conservative  influence  once  pos 
sessed  by  the  government  itself  has  no  longer  any  per 
ceptible  existence,  but  has,  indeed,  been  supplanted  by  a 
malignant  virus  which  is  fast  consuming  the  very  vitals 
of  the  body  politic.  Popular  confidence  in  rulers  is,  for 
a  time,  at  an  end.  Anarchy,  licentiousness,  and  lawless 
violence'  are  every  where  displaying  themselves.  The 
Washingtons,  the  Jacksons,  the  Clays,  the  Websters,  the 
Polks,  have  passed  away ;  a  generation  of  babbling  fac- 
tionists,  noisy  declaimers,  self-consequential,  dreamy  ab 
stractionists,  servile,  sycophantic  worshipers  of  ostenta 
tious  false  greatness  has  succeeded,  who  impudently  claim 
ascendency  in  our  national  councils.  The  high  function 
aries  of  government,  with  their  innumerable  subordinates 
scattered  and  ramified  all  over  the  republic,  in  fearful 


RICHARD   II.  AND  JAMES  BUCHANAN.  279 

unison  with  that  worse  than  Briarean  monster,  a  corrupt 
stipendiary  press,  instead  of  upholding  and  sustaining  the 
governmental  system  with  which  they  stand  affiliated, 
with  a  strange  and  uprecedented  blindness,  are  in  close 
alliance  with  those  who  have  deliberately  decreed  that 
system  to  destruction,  and  are  urging  that  the  dark  fiends 
of  civic  rebellion  shall  be  invited  to  perform  their  infer 
nal  orgies  in  the  very  temple  of  freedom.  The  whole 
eighty  millions  of  executive  patronage  is  now  being 
wielded  for  the  worst  and  most  dangerous  purposes  of 
faction.  The  freedom  of  popular  elections  in  the  states 
and  territories  is  no  longer  regarded.  Since  the  reign  of 
Kichard  II.,  in  England  (that  ill-fated  monarch  who  was 
dethroned  and  put  to  death  for  attempting,  through  the 
sheriffs  of  the  realm,  to  control  the  election  of  members 
of  the  House  of  Commons),  nothing  so  alarming  has  oc 
curred  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  the  efforts  openly 
and  unblushingly  made  by  Mr.  Buchanan  and  those  as 
sociated  with  him  to  influence  the  result  of  the  election 
of  members  of  both  houses  of  Congress  by  means  of  Fed 
eral  official  patronage.  It  is  evident  that  a  few  years 
more  of  such  vicious,  tyrannic  intermeddling,  if  unhappi 
ly  successful,  will  fill  the  national  Legislature  with  the 
mere  slaves  and  servitors  of  the  executive  will,  prepared 
to  obey  all  his  commands,  and  obediently  to  register  his 
edicts.  Whenever  this  state  of  things  shall  be  brought 
about,  it  is  plain  that  popular  freedom  will  exist  no  lon 
ger,  nor  independent  legislation,  nor  any  possibility,  even, 
of  escaping  the  gulf  of  executive  despotism.  All  power 
will  be  virtually  concentrated  in  a  single  executive  chief, 
who,  by  whatever  name  called,  will  be,  in  fact,  nothing 


280  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

more  nor  less  than  an  imperial  autocrat.  But  it  is  scarce 
ly  possible  that  even  so  favorable  a  result  will  be  real 
ized.  The  overthrow  of  the  Union,  and  the  division  and 
subdivision  of  the  republic  into  a  half  dozen  or  even  a 
dozen  warring  confederacies,  all  of  them  necessarily  main 
taining  a  standing  army,  and  sooner  or  later  destined  to 
become  severe  and  bloody  tyrannies,  is  the  natural  and 
necessary  result  of  the  monstrous  and  undeniable  alli 
ance  which  has  been  lately  formed  between  our  present 
Federal  chief  magistrate  and  the  open  enemies  of  the 
Union.  Washington  firmly  but  resolutely  drew  the 
sword  against  the  whisky  insurrectionists  of  Pennsylva 
nia  ;  Jefferson  employed  all  his  giant  energies  for  the 
suppression  of  the  Burr  conspiracy ;  Madison  exploded 
the  Hartford  Convention  project ;  Jackson  fulminated 
his  sublime  overawing  proclamation  against  the  nulli- 
fiers  and  secessionists  of  South  Carolina ;  Fillmore,  with 
a  quiet,  serene  wisdom,  steered  the  ship  of  state  for  three 
years  successfully  and  peacefully,  all  the  while  observing 
faithfully  the  prescriptions  which  Clay  and  his  associates 
placed  in  his  hands,  known  as  the  Compromise  of  1850  ; 
Buchanan — oh,  most  shameful  example  I — has  deliberate 
ly  joined  the  ranks  of  the  Southern  disunionists.  Mean 
while  the  true  and  reliable  friends  of  the  Union,  the  up 
holders  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  the  advocates 
of  social  peace  and  order,  are,  to  a  most  serious  and  alarm 
ing  extent,  separated  from  each  other,  fighting  in  oppos 
ing  party  ranks,  wasting  in  profitless  and  unfraternal 
strife  energies  which,  blended,  united,  inspirited  with  the 
fervid  glow  of  patriotism,  and  valiantly  and  persistently 
wielded  against  the  common  foe,  might  rescue  Liberty 


EFFORTS  TO   DEFEAT   SECESSION.  281 

from  peril,  save  the  Union  from  wreck,  and  reclaim,  ren 
ovate,  and  preserve  this  great  nation. 

"  Under  these  trying  circumstances  a  presidential  elec 
tion  is  in  a  few  months  to  occur,  in  connection  with 
which  it  really  seems  to  me  that  there  are  only  two  ques 
tions  worth  a  moment's  consideration.  These  are : 

"  1.  Is  the  government  of  our  fathers  to  he  preserved? 

"  2.  Is  corruption  to  he  suppressed — the  Augean  stable  to 
he  thoroughly  cleansed? 

"  He  who  honestly  labors  for  the  attainment  of  these 
two  public  ends  may  possibly  err  in  the  selection  of  the 
means  which  he  employs,  but  is  worthy  of  the  respect 
and  love  of  all  patriots  for  the  goodness  of  his  intentions ; 
he  who  is  opposed  to  either  of  these  meritorious  objects 
is  unworthy  to  be  called  a  freeman. 

"  Five  presidential  tickets  are  in  the  field.  In  relation 
to  two  of  them  I  have  nothing  to  say,  either  in  support 
or  in  opposition.  Were  I  to  bestow  upon  them  language 
of  commendation,  I  should  but  disparage  and  discredit 
them ;  I  should  cease  to  respect  myself  were  I  tempted, 
at  such  a  trying  and  perilous  moment  in  our  national  his 
tory,  to  apply  to  them  terms  either  of  decrial  or  of  ridi 
cule.  My  fight  is  with  Kepublicanism  in  the  North,  and 
secession  in  the  South ;  and  for  the  purpose  of  uprooting 
and  destroying  both  these  dangerous  factions,  I  deem  it 
my  duty  to  yield  a  hearty  support  to  the  National  Dem 
ocratic  presidential  ticket,  upon  which  are  enrolled  the 
names  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  and  Herschel 
Y.  Johnson,  of  Georgia. 

"  Every  man  whom  I  now  address  well  knows  that  the 
Eepublican  presidential  candidate  stands  pledged,  if  elect- 


282  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

ed  to  the  station  which,  he  seeks,  to  labor  for  the  exclu 
sion,  by  congressional  enactment,  of  African  slavery  from 
our  vacant  territories ;  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia;  and  for  the  modification,  in  several 
vital  respects,  of  what  is  known  as  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  The  adoption  of  either  of  these  measures  will 
inevitably  destroy  the  Union.  Every  Southern  state, 
or  rather  a  majority  of  them,  have  long  been  formally 
pledged  to  secession,  as  a  necessary  remedy  against  this, 
which  they  would  deem  intolerable  oppression.  Indeed, 
the  Union  men  of  the  South,  in  order  to  procure  a  quiet 
and  peaceable  acquiescence  in  the  compromise  measures 
of  1850,  had  to  pledge  themselves  to  their  excited  coun 
trymen  that,  in  the  event  of  the  passage  of  such  laws  as 
those  enumerated,  or  any  one  of  them,  they  would  them 
selves  take  the  initiative  in  the  work  of  disunion.  Now 
I  wish  to  deal  fairly  with  this  matter,  and  must  therefore 
declare  that,  in  my  judgment,  either  Bel],  Houston,  or 
Douglas,  in  the  event  of  election  to  the  presidency,  would 
promptly  exercise  the  veto  power  for  the  defeat  of  any 
of  these  measures,  which  action  on  the  part  of  the  execu 
tive  would  in  all  probability  effectually  defeat  such  con 
gressional  enactments,  for  want  of  a  two  thirds  vote  in 
support  of  them  in  the  two  houses  of  the  national  Legis 
lature.  The  veto  power,  in  this  view,  must  be  regarded 
by  all  reasonable  men  as  the  very  sheet-anchor  of  the 
public  safety,  calculated  to  afford  more  solid  and  substan 
tial  protection  to  Southern  institutions  than  all  the  silly 
abstractions  that  ever  entered  the  moonstruck  and  ill-bal 
anced  craniums  of  all  the  political  metaphysicians  that 
ever  cursed  the  councils  of  the  country  with  their  baleful 
presence. 


EXPOSITION  OF  THE  SECESSION  POLICY.          283 

"But,  again:  certain  sectional  demagogues  of  the 
South,  quite  easy  to  be  named,  in  several  of  the  Southern 
and  Southwestern  states,  have  taken  most  foul  and  un 
manly  advantage  of  the  peculiar  sensitiveness  and  in 
flammability  of  the  popular  mind  of  our  mercurial  region 
touching  slavery,  and  have  some  time  since  contrived  to 
inveigle  their  over-confiding  countrymen  in  a  solemn  and 
formal  pledge  (either  by  legislative  or  conventional  reso 
lutions)  to  go  out  of  the  Union  in  the  event  of  the  elec 
tion  of  a  Eepublican  president  in  November  next.  Hav 
ing  thus  adroitly  obtained  this  perilous  committal,  these 
same  artful  and  unscrupulous  managers  immediately  set 
themselves  to  work  to  get  the  Southern  mind  excited  and 
infuriated  by  new  questions  connected  with  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery,  intending,  after  a  while,  if  they  could  suf 
ficiently  madden  the  feelings  of  those  to  whom  they  thus 
addressed  themselves,  to  get  the  South,  or  at  least  what 
are  known  as  the  cotton  states  of  this  region,  united  fierce 
ly  in  some  new  demand  of  congressional  legislation,  which 
being  refused,  as  was  confidently  expected  would  be  the 
case,  they  hoped  to  be  able  to  'precipitate  these  same  cotton 
states  into  disunion?  Especially  did  they  expect  this  ter 
rible  result  to  arise  from  the  election  of  a  Eepublican 
president,  an  event  which  they  confidently  believed  would 
be  brought  about  by  the  continued  agitation  of  the  slav 
ery  question.  Hence  the  Lecompton  controversy.  Hence 
the  demand,  last  summer,  by  the  Southern  Commercial 
Convention  which  assembled  in  the  city  of  Vieksburg, 
for  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave-trade,  advocated 
openly  and  earnestly  in  that  body  by  ex-Governor  Mc- 
Eae,  and  to  some  extent  abetted  also  by  Senators  Davis 


284  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

and  Brown.  Hence  the  almost  unanimous  adoption  of  a 
resolution  by  that  Convention  in  favor  of  the  renewal  of 
that  accursed  policy.  Hence  the  formal  sanction  by  the 
same  body  of  that  most  treasonable  and  disgraceful  speech 
of  Mr.  Spratt,  of  South  Carolina,  in  which  he  openly  de 
clared,  in  express  terms,  that  the  '  time  had  come  for  the 
South  to  take  an  aggressive  attitude,'  and  unblushingly 
boasted  that  Southern  juries  would  never  convict  any 
violator  of  the  law,  however  manifestly  proved  to  be 
guilty  before  them.  Hence  the  furious  advocacy  of  this 
damnable  policy  by  some  twenty  or  thirty  Southern  Dem 
ocratic  presses,  mainly  in  the  State  of  Mississippi.  Hence 
the  correspondent  action  of  Yancey  and  others  in  Ala 
bama,  and  their  secession  comrades  in  Georgia,  South 
Carolina,  Florida,  and  Texas.  So  soon  as  it  was  ascer 
tained  that  the  Southern  States  could  not  be  brought  into 
hearty  co-operation  in  support  of  this  extravagant  de 
mand,  and  that,  on  the  contrary, Virginia,  Kentucky,  Ten 
nessee,  Missouri,  North  Carolina,  and  Maryland  would 
prove  as  hostile  to  it  as  any  of  the  free  states  even,  then 
a  new  device  was  fallen  upon,  which  it  was  hoped  might 
be  more  successful.  Mr.  Davis  had  urged  the  measure 
of  congressional  protection,  as  a  member  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  as  an  amendment  to  the  compromise  enact 
ments  of  1850.  It  had  been  repeatedly  voted  down,  and 
some,  including  him  who  is  now  addressing  you,  had  de 
nounced  it  warmly  as  'the  Wilmot  Proviso  /South.1  Upon 
this  very  issue,  with  others,  submitted  to  the  people  of  the 
State  of  Mississippi  in  1851,  Mr.  Davis  had  been  defeat 
ed  for  governor  of  that  gallant  state,  all  the  strong  cotton- 
growing  counties  therein,  and  especially  all  those  located 


INCIPIENT  SECESSION  MOVEMENTS.  285 

upon  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi  Kiver,  from  the  south 
ern  boundary  of  Tennessee  to  the  northern  boundary  of 
Louisiana,  including  the  county  of  his  own  residence, 
voting  against  him.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  it  was  re 
solved  to  bring  forward  this  protective  proposition  again. 
Nobody,  of  course,  expected  to  obtain  the  protection 
claimed  at  the  hands  "of  Congress.  There  could  not  have 
been  a  human  being  in  the  Union  mad  enough  to  expect 
it.  But  the  bringing  it  forward  in  Southern  Legislatures, 
and  Conventions,  and  urging  it  fiercely  in  Congress,  it 
was  hoped,  would  infallibly  have  one  of  two  effects,  and 
perhaps  produce  both  of  them :  Mr.  Douglas,  known  to 
be  an  inffexible  non-interventionist,  would  be  killed  off, 
and  the  Democratic  party  would  be,  in  all  probability,  so 
distracted  and  divided  that  the  darling  scheme  of  seces 
sion  would  at  last  be  accomplished.  The  movements  of 
the  secessionists  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  their 
comrades  in  four  or  five  of  the  Southern  States,  are  thus 
easily  solved.  Meanwhile,  Mr.  Douglas  was  to  be  mar 
tyred  in  advance,  if  possible,  by  a  more  compendious 
process.  The  Lecompton  issue  was  to  be  forced  upon 
him ;  he  was  to  be  simultaneously  denounced  by  the  ad 
ministration  presses  throughout  the  South ;  an  alliance 
even  with  Kepublicanism  was  to  be  set  on  foot  in  Illi 
nois,  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  present  Eepublican  candidate 
for  the  presidency,  was  to  be  aided  by  Mr.  Buchanan  as 
strongly  as  possible  in  his  struggle  to  supplant  him.  In 
despite  of  all  this,  Mr.  Douglas  was  able  to  triumph. 
What  then  ?  It  was  resolved  to  ostracize  him  in  a  Dem 
ocratic  caucus  of  United  States  senators.  Mr.  Slidell,  the 
President's  alter  ego  and  conscience-keeper,  just  after  the 


286  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

result  of  the  Illinois  election  was  ascertained,  when  he 
passed  through  the  city  of  Memphis,  publicly  boasted 
that  he  intended  to  bring  about  the  decapitation  of  Mr. 
Douglas  by  the  very  expedient  afterward  put  in  exer 
cise.  He  had,  just  a  month  before,  very  publicly,  in  a 
conversation  with  me,  avowed  the  interference  of  the 
President  in  the  Illinois  election,  and  justified  it.  Well, 
the  bowstring  was  applied  in  caucus  on  the  application 
of  Mr.  Slidell,  as  he  had  threatened,  this  gentleman  being 
reported  as  declaring  at  the  time  that  he  did  so  on  the 
advice  and  at  the  solicitation  of  the  President  himself. 
Then  came  the  struggle  for  congressional  protection  in 
the  Senate.  Then  was  displayed  to  view  the  monstrous 
scene  of  some  eight  or  ten  presidential  aspirants  uniting 
their  powers  for  the  destruction  of  one  man,  merely  be 
cause  his  superior  merits  had  given  him  a  larger  share 
of  public  confidence  than  any  of  them.  Then  succeeded 
the  most  magnificent  parliamentary  triumph  of  modern 
times,  the  signal  and  disgraceful  overthrow  of  all  these 
conspirators  in  the  open  field  of  debate.  Next  came  the 
struggle  in  Charleston ;  the  corrupt  and  unscrupulous 
use  of  official  patronage  for  the  defeat  of  the  noble  cham 
pion  of  non-intervention ;  the  schemings  of  secession 
leaders ;  the  disgraceful  treachery  of  Caleb  Gushing,  and 
others  from  the  North,  in  wicked  alliance  with  Southern 
disunionists,  and  under  the  seductive  influence  of  prom 
ised  official  reward.  Then  came  the  disgusting  scenes 
in  Charleston,  the  still  more  disgraceful  scenes  in  Balti 
more,  the  ultimate  triumph  of  Douglas  and  non-interven 
tion,  and  the  subsequent  nomination  of  Breckenridge  and 
Lane  by  a  strange,  anomalous  assemblage,  presumptuous- 


BRECKENRIDGE  AND   LANE.  287 

ly  calling  itself  a  National  Democratic  Convention,  in 
number  but  little  exceeding  one  third  of  the  whole  Con 
vention,  composed  mainly  and  almost  exclusively  of  cor 
rupt  office-holding  slaves  to  executive  will,  notorious  and 
rabid  secessionists  of  the  Yancey  and  Jeff  Davis  school, 
and  a  small  number  of  worthy  delegates  from  Tennessee 
and  other  states,  egregiously  duped  by  the  unscrupulous 
managers  with  whom  they  had  to  deal,  and  with  whose 
noxious  companionship  I  can  not  doubt  they  will,  in  a 
short  time,  become  utterly  nauseated. 

"Now  I  take  the  ground,  and  propose  to  establish  be 
yond  doubt,  that  the  nomination  of  Messrs.  Breckenridge 
and  Lane  is  a  rank  secession  scheme ;  that  they  were 
nominated  by  most  of  those  who  voted  for  them  with  no 
earthly  hope  of  electing  them,  but  with  a  view  to  defeat 
ing  the  regular  nominees  of  the  Democratic  party,  Messrs. 
Douglas  and  Johnson ;  that  it  was  confidently  expected 
by  those  who  took  the  lead  in  this  shameful  disorganiz 
ing  movement  that  the  secession  ticket  would  withdraw 
enough  votes  from  Douglas  to  secure  the  election  of  Lin 
coln,  and  that  Lincoln's  election  would  inevitably  bring 
about  disunion.  I  charge  distinctly  that  the  platform 
adopted  by  the  Yancey  and  Davis  Convention  looks,  di 
rectly  and  palpably,  to  secession,  as  an  object  to  be  at 
tained  through  the  instrumentality  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  elec 
tion,  it  being  perfectly  known  and  understood  at  the  time 
this  ticket  was  nominated  that  the  claim  of  protection 
would  infallibly  defeat  it  in  every  free  state,  and  it  being 
also  well  known  at  the  time  that  Mr.  Yancey  and  his  al 
lies  in  the  South  already  were  solemnly  pledged  to  unite 
in  an  act  of  secession  immediately  upon  Lincoln's  elec 
tion,  before  even  he  could  be  inaugurated. 


288  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

"  Mr.  President  and  fellow-citizens,  friends  and  lovers 
of  the  Union,  whether  born  upon  a  foreign  soil  and  seek 
ing  the  enjoyment  of  freedom  in  the  natal  land  of  Wash 
ington,  and  Jefferson,  and  Jackson,  or  drawing  your  first 
breath  in  some  part  of  this  noble  continent,  now  per 
chance  the  last  refuge  of  liberty  on  earth,  I  address  you 
all  as  friends  and  brethren,  and  compatriots  —  not  in  a 
spirit  of  soul- withering  and  disciplined  partisanship,  still 
less  in  the  language  of  sectional  jealousy  and  strife.  It 
has  been  my  hope  to  speak  to  you  in  a  tone  of  ardent  and 
elevated  patriotism  worthy  of  the  noble  cause  of  which  I 
am  a  zealous  though  feeble  champion,  worthy  of  this  great 
assemblage  of  law-abiding,  Union-loving,  treason-hating 
patriots  now  assembled  in  the  metropolis  of  that  noble 
state  where  quietly  repose  the  sacred  ashes  of  a  Jackson 
and  a  Polk.  May  I  breathe  no  sentiment,  utter  no  word, 
employ  no  argument,  which  the  venerated  patriarch  of 
our  proud  city,  whose  severe  physical  indisposition  alone 
prevents  his  presiding  over  our  present  deliberations  (the 
bosom  friend  and  trusted  counselor  of  the  immortal  hero 
of  the  Hermitage  for  more  than  sixty  years),  could  not 
conscientiously  sanction  and  approve.  "We  come  hither 
to  ratify  the  nominations  of  Douglas  and  Johnson  for  the 
presidency  and  vice-presidency  of  the  Union,  two  men  of 
approved  integrity,  of  unquestioned  patriotism,  of  high 
abilities,  of  ample  attainments,  of  enlarged  experience  in 
public  life,  who  have  been  deliberately  recommended  to 
us  by  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  grand  national  Con 
vention  which  recently  assembled  in  Baltimore.  Let  me, 
in  the  most  concise  manner,  specify  a  few  of  the  chief 
reasons  which,  in  my  judgment,  should  secure  to  these 


DOUGLAS  AS  A  PKESIDENTIAL   CANDIDATE.        289 

gentlemen  our  undivided,  hearty,  and  persistent  sup 
port: 

"  1.  They  were  nominated  according  to  the  established 
usages  of  the  great  party  of  which  they  have  long  been 
distinguished  and  trusted  leaders. 

"2.  They  were  nominated  honestly  and  fairly,  without 
trickery  or  illicit  contrivance  of  any  kind,  by  more  than 
two  hundred  delegates,  unequivocally  entitled  to  repre 
sent  the  great  mass  of  Democratic  sentiment  of  this  broad 
Union. 

"3.  They  were  nominated  as  known  opponents  of  sec 
tionalism,  either  in  the  South  or  in  the  North,  enemies 
alike  of  secession  and  of  Black  Kepublicanism. 

"  4.  They  were  nominated  in  opposition  to  the  whole 
mass  of  executive  patronage,  openly  wielded  by  a  corrupt 
and  unscrupulous  President,  and  that  profligate  band  of 
official  janissaries  whom  he  holds  in  his  pay,  and  who, 
with  more  than  serf-like  servility,  stand  ready  to  receive 
his  commands  and  execute  his  behests. 

"5.  They  were  nominated  alone  by  national  men  and 
men  of  the  highest  independence  of  spirit,  there  being 
not  one  secessionist  among  them,  nor  one  slavish  tool  of 
power;  a  few  honest  and  firm-minded  men,  incumbents 
of  Federal  office,  preferring  their  country  to  the  enjoy 
ment  of  executive  favor,  having  dared  to  do  their  duty  as 
patriots  at  the  hazard  of  immediate  official  decapitation. 

"6.  Because  the  Douglas  and  Johnson  ticket  consti 
tutes  the  only  available  Democratic  ticket  now  in  the 
field,  to  abandon  them  is  to  abandon  all  hope  of  Demo 
cratic  success  in  the  present  presidential  contest ;  to  with 
draw  votes  from  them  is  to  strengthen  Lincoln  and  i'n- 

N 


290  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

crease  the  probability  of  his  election,  with  all  the  dire  con 
sequences  which  will  be  certain  to  wait  upon  that  event. 
No  man  of  sense,  any  where,  believes  that  Breckenridge 
and  Lane  can  carry  a  single  free  state.  It  is  admitted,  on 
all  hands,  that  the  running  of  Douglas  can  alone  prevent 
Lincoln's  carrying  every  free  state  in  the  confederacy. 
Therefore  to  drive  Douglas  from  the  field,  if  the  thing- 
were  possible,  or  seriously  to  weaken  him,  is  to  strength 
en  Lincoln,  multiply  the  chances  of  his  success,  put  South 
ern  institutions  in  the  most  serious  danger,  and  bring  the 
Union  itself  into  the  greatest  jeopardy.  It  is  obvious 
that  there  is  no  man  in  the  republic  who  is  so  strong  with 
the  mass  of  the  people  as  Douglas ;  no  man  who  has  so 
large  a  share  of  the  public  confidence ;  no  man  whose  el 
evation  to  the  presidential  station  would  awaken  such  in 
tense  and  general  satisfaction.  Every  man  knows  that 
no  Democratic  presidential  candidate  identified  with  all 
the  manifest  corruptions  and  multiplied  abuses  of  power 
perpetrated  by  this  most  unfortunate  administration  can 
possibly  be  elected.  No  man  identified  with  the  schemes 
of  the  Southern  secessionists  can  or  ought  to  be  made 
President.  No  man  can  possibly  triumph  over  Lincoln 
except  some  individual  known  to  be  unflinchingly  op 
posed  to  the  whole  scheme  of  disunion,  and  equally  op 
posed  to  a  perpetuation  of  existing  official  corruptions. 
The  people  of  the  United  States  know  well  that  the  de 
struction  of  our  institutions  is  at  this  moment  doubly 
menaced — by  violent  disruption,  and  that  certain  death 
which  comes  from  interior  corruption  and  decay.  They 
feel  assured  that  the  election  of  Douglas  would  save  them 
from  the  experience  of  both  these  evils ;  he  would  main- 


DOUGLAS  THE   PULTENEY  OF  AMERICA.  291 

tain  and  preserve  the  Union,  and  reform  and  purify  the 
government.  Democrats,  convinced  that  reformation  is 
imperiously  necessary  even  to  the  continued  existence  of 
our  present  form  of  government,  are  anxious  that  the 
spirit  of  redemption  should  spring  up  in  the  bosom  of 
their  own  loved  and  honored  party ;  that  whatever  of 
reformation  shall  take  place  shall  be  carried  forward  and 
regulated  by  Democratic  principles.  They  recognize  Mr. 
Douglas  as  the  Pulteney  of  America ;  and  what  the  great 
British  statesman  just  mentioned  achieved  for  England  a 
little  more  than  a  century  ago,  when,  without  abandoning 
his  party,  or  calling  in  question  its  time-honored  princi 
ples,  he  attacked  the  corrupt  leader  of  that  very  party, 
even  while  holding  the  reins  of  executive  power  and  os 
tentatiously  asserting  that  every  man  in  England  had  his 
price,  drove  him  from  the  post  of  prime  minister  in  dis 
grace,  vindicated  effectually  the  principles  which  he  had 
so  vilely  abased,  restored  the  ancient  dignity  of  the  Whig 
cause  in  England,  and  paved  the  way  for  the  introduc 
tion  of  those  grand  measures  of  national  policy  which  aft 
erward  encircled  the  names  of  Chatham,  and  Burke,  and 
Fox,  and  Erskine  with  a  halo  of  imperishable  glory." 

Before  closing  this  chapter,  I  shall  avail  myself  of  the 
opportunity  of  doing  justice  to  an  eminent  individual, 
now,  alas!  in  the  tomb,  who  is  alluded  to  in  the  above 
extracts  in  language  of  most  harsh  and  criminating  rep 
rehension.  "With  the  views  which  I  entertained  of  Wil 
liam  L.  Yancey,  his  political  schemes  and  movements  in 
1860  (which  I  now  continue  to  entertain  in  1865  in  rela 
tion  to  those  schemes  and  movements),  I  could  not  have 
done  otherwise,  as  one  anxious  to  preserve  the  Federal 


292  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

Union,  than  exert  myself  to  the  utmost  of  my  limited  in 
tellectual  powers,  and  still  more  limited  influence,  in  ward 
ing  off  the  perils  which  I  conscientiously  thought  he  and 
others  in  alliance  with  him  were  bringing  upon  the  coun 
try.  I  feel  bound  in  frankness  to  declare,  though,  that 
I  do  not  at  all  doubt  that  his  conduct,  however  grossly 
erroneous  and  pregnant  with  great  and  lasting  mischief, 
as  I  certainly  deem  it  to  have  been,  was  in  all  respects 
regulated  by  a  high  but  perverted  sense  of  duty  to  that 
section  of  the  Union  where  he  chanced  to  be  born  and 
reared,  and  with  the  safety  and  permanent  prosperity  of 
which  his  feelings  were  intensely  affiliated.  I  was  a  close 
observer  of  his  conduct  while  a  member  of  the  Confeder 
ate  Congress,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to 
the  fact  that  his  course,  while  laboring  to  provide  for  the 
exigencies  of  a  civil  war,  in  the  bringing  on  of  which  he 
had  so  prominently  participated,  was,  with  very  slight 
exceptions  scarcely  worthy  of  mention,  in  happy  unison 
with  his  antecedent  professions  of  devotion  to  state-rights 
and  popular  freedom.  He  resisted  with  manly  and  per 
sistent  firmness  the  insidious  and  untiring  efforts  of 
others  to  concentrate  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Davis  powers, 
the  possession  of  which  even  for  a  year  or  two  would  in 
fallibly  have  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a  most  ap 
palling  despotism;  and  just  at  the  moment  of  Mr.  Yan- 
cey's  lamented  decease,  he  was  preparing,  at  the  next  en 
suing  session  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  to  institute 
grave  and  searching  investigations,  which  would  have  en 
forced  a  terrible  responsibility  in  the  high  places  of  gov 
ernmental  rule,  and  have  caused  thousands  of  petty  of 
fenders  all  over  the  land  to  shudder  with  affright  at  the 


WM.  L.  YANCEY — HIS  OPPOSITION  TO   DAVIS.      293 

prospect  of  being  at  last  held  to  something  like  a  just  of 
ficial  responsibility.  He  had  long  since  ceased  to  enter 
tain  respect  for  Mr.  Davis's  abilities,  either  as  the  mana 
ger  of  difficult  civic  concerns,  or  as  the  chief  controller 
and  director  of  military  movements ;  and  he  began,  with 
a  multitude  of  others,  to  fear  that,  if  even  the  Southern 
struggle  for  independence  should  be  eventually  success 
ful,  a  second,  and  perchance  a  far  bloodier  struggle  would 
become  necessary,  in  order  to  dragfrom;the  hands  of  Mr. 
Davis  and  those  associated  with  him  the  injudiciously 
vested  powers  which  they  were  every  day  so  shamefully 
and  so  unpardonably  abusing.  It  is  with  a 'melancholy 
gratification  that  I  now  call  to  mind  the  last  interview  I 
had  with  Mr.  Yancey.  It  was  in  the  hall  of  the  Confed 
erate  House  of  Kepresentatives,  a  month  or  two  before 
his  demise.  He  had  come  in  for  the  purpose  of  witness 
ing  the  last  successful  struggle  made  in  that  body  to  de 
feat  the  re-enactment  of  the  law  for  the  universal  suspen 
sion  of  the  great  writ  of  Liberty,  the  habeas  coitus.  The 
contest  had  just  terminated,  and  the  champions  of  despot 
ic  power  had  been  prostrated  on  the  field  of  controversy. 
Mr.  Yancey  approached  me  with  extended  hand,  congrat 
ulated  me  cordially  upon  the  triumph  just  achieved,  and 
said,  "  Mr.  Davis  has  at  last  cuffed  the  two  houses  of 
Congress  into  independence;"  and  intimated  that  he  should 
hereafter  have  more  hope  for  the  Confederate  cause  than 
he  had  entertained  for  some  months  previous. 

William  L.  Yancey  was  undoubtedly  no  ordinary  man. 
He  possessed  an  intellect  of  great  native  activity  and  vig 
or,  and  he  had  cultivated  his  rare  natural  gifts  both  with 
assiduity  and  success.  He  had  but  little  of  imagination, 


294  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBUIS. 

and  still  less  of  humor ;  but  lie  was  clear,  methodical,  and 
cogent  in  argument ;  always  expressed  himself  in  chaste 
and  polished  language;  his  readiness  and.  dexterity  in 
controversy  were  astonishing,  and  his  powers  of  sarcasm 
such  as  few  men  besides  have  possessed.  He  lacked 
nothing  save  a  happier  equipoise  of  his  faculties,  a  little 
more  quietude  and  sobriety  of  temper,  a  little  less  of  tenaci 
ty  in  his  own  opinions,  and  a  little  more  of  deference  for 
the  views  of  others,  to  have  become  one  of  the  most  ef 
fective  and  useful  public  men  that  the  republic  has  at  any 
time  produced. 

Requiescat  in  pace  ! 


1861.  295 


CHAPTER  XY. 

Movements  in  the  South  looking  to  Secession. — South  Carolina  takes 
the  Lead  in  the  Execution  of  her  long-cherished  Scheme. — Adoption 
of  the  Ordinance  of  Secession  by  that  State. — Georgia  and  the  other 
Cotton  States  follow  the  Lead  of  South  Carolina. — Commendable  Ef 
forts  in  several  of  the  States  of  the  North  to  moderate  Southern  Excite 
ment  and  secure  the  yielding  of  reasonable  Concessions  to  the  slave- 
holding  Interests  of  the  South. — Tennessee  and  the  Border  States  still 
remain  firm. — Extraordinary  Message  of  Mr.  Buchanan  to  Congress  in 
the  Month  of  December,  1800,  and  its  unhappy  Effect  upon  public  Sen 
timent. — Furious  Debate  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  upon  the  Ques 
tions  pending  at  this  Crisis. — All  Efforts  at  Compromise  prove  abor 
tive. — Unwise  and  unpatriotic  Conduct  on  the  Part  of  Southern  Sena 
tors  and  Representatives  in  vacating  their  Seats  in  Congress. 

THE  long-hoped-for  opportunity  of  trying  the  experi 
ment  of  secession  was  now  at  last  presented.  Abraham 
Lincoln  had  been  elevated  to  the  presidency  by  a  strictly 
sectional  vote ;  and  though  the  fact  could  not  be  denied 
that  he  had  been  elected  in  a  perfectly  constitutional  man 
ner,  though  he  had  not  received  any  thing  like  a  majori 
ty  of  the  whole  popular  vote,  and  though  he  was  admit 
ted  on  all  hands  to  be  a  man  of  excellent  practical  intel 
lect,  of  many  amiable  qualities  in  domestic  and  social 
life,  who  had  never  manifested  the  smallest  portion  of 
that  rancorous  sectional  malignity  which  so  many  were 
now  displaying  so  deplorably  on  both  sides  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line,  yet,  no  sooner  was  it  ascertained  that  it  was 
almost  certain  that  he  would  receive  a  majority  of  the 


296  SCYLLA  AND   CHABYBDIS. 

electoral  votes  of  the  whole  Union,  than  steps  began  to 
be  taken  for  carrying  into  effect  a  revolutionary  project 
which  had  engrossed  the  thoughts  and  sensibilities  of  a 
small  class  of  extreme  Southern  politicians,  mainly  con 
fined  to  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  for  some  thirty  years 
preceding.  The  modus  operandi  of  the  secession  policy, 
as  has  been  already  made  sufficiently  apparent,  was  "to 
precipitate  the  cotton  states  of  the  South"  into  disunion, 
and  bring  about  an  early  collision  with  the  Federal  gov 
ernment,  in  the  confident  hope  that  whenever  it  should 
be  known  in  the  border  states  of  the  South  that  war  had 
been  actually  commenced,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Missouri, 
Maryland,  North  Carolina,  and  Tennessee  would  be  com 
pelled  to  unite  in  the  movement,  however  they  might  be 
inclined  to  disapprove  it,  as  well  as  the  motives  which 
had  prompted  it.  This  supposition  was,  indeed,  not  at 
all  an  unreasonable  one,  for  the  states  just  mentioned 
were  to  a  very  large  extent  possessed  of  property  in 
slaves;  and  though  the  opinion  prevailed  therein  very 
widely  that  no  such  solid  guarantee  for  their  slavehold- 
ing  interests  as  that  afforded  by  the  Federal  Constitution 
was  at  all  likely  to  be  conferred  by  a  sectional  war,  yet 
perceiving,  as  they  would  be  sure  to  do,  that  the  relative 
strength  of  the  slaveholding  states  left  in  the  Union  after 
the  withdrawal  of  those  of  the  cotton  -  growing  region 
would  be  so  far  lessened  as  to  leave  them  thereafter  an 
easy  prey  to  abolition  hostility,  it  was  regarded  as  next 
to  certain  that  they  would  in  the  end  feel  constrained  to 
join  any  new  confederacy  which  might  be  set  on  foot  in 
the  South  having  the  least  prospect  of  strength  and  sta 
bility. 


MR.  YANCEY  IN  THE  NORTH  IN  1860.     297 

It  was  strongly  suspected  by  the  friends  of  the  Union 
in  the  South,  and  had  been  distinctly  charged  to  be  true, 
in  various  forms,  while  the  presidential  contest  was  pend 
ing,  that  the  followers  of  the  great  secession  leaders  were 
desirous  that  the  Kepublicans  should  be  successful  there 
in,  as  only  in  this  way  would  they  be  supplied  with  the 
pretext  so  much  desired  by  many  for  withdrawing  from 
civil  associations  with  the  free  states  of  the  North ;  and  it 
is  yet  well  remembered  that  Mr.  Yancey,  with  that  ex 
traordinary  skill  as  a  political  manager  which  distin 
guished  him,  had  performed  a  pilgrimage  to  the  North 
early  in  the  summer  of  1860  to  counteract  this  very 
charge  of  desiring  Mr.  Lincoln's  election,  so  far  as  the 
same  applied  to  himself,  the  effect  of  which  he  appre 
hended  might  be  such  as  to  incapacitate  him  for  the  ulti 
mate  consummation  of  his  hopes  on  this  subject,  unless 
he  could  succeed  in  securing  to  himself  an  opportunity 
of  showing  to  his  confiding  partisans  that  he  had  really 
exerted  himself  in  the  North  against  the  Eepublican 
presidential  ticket.  With  what  remarkable  adroitness 
he  executed  this  device  no  one  who  was  a  close  observer 
of  the  events  of  that  extraordinary  period  could  have 
failed  to  observe ;  and  yet  nothing  is  more  certain  than 
the  fact  that  the  extremists  of  the  South  did  indirectly  co 
operate,  to  the  full  extent  of  their  power,  in  bringing 
about  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  the  views  and 
purposes  just  specified.  No  one  need,  therefore,  to  feel 
the  smallest  surprise  at  finding  in  the  pages  of  Mr.  Gree- 
ley's  work  the  following  very  striking  paragraph : 

"  From  an-  early  stage  of  the  canvass,  the  Eepublicans 
could  not  help  seeing  that  they  had  the  potent  aid  in 

1ST  Q 


298  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

their  efforts  of  the  good  wishes  for  their  success  of  at  least 
a  large  proportion  of  the  advocates  of  Breckenridge  and 
Lane.  The  toasts  drunk  with  most  enthusiasm  at  the 
Fourth  of  July  celebrations  throughout  South  Carolina 
pointed  to  the  probable  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  the 
necessary  prelude  to  movements  whereon  the  hearts  of 
all  Carolinians  were  intent.  Southern  'fire-eaters'  can 
vassed  the  Northern  States  in  behalf  of  Breckenridge 
and  Lane,  but  very  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  friends 
of  Lincoln  and  Hamlin.  The  'fusion'  arrangements, 
whereby  it  wa^  hoped,  at  all  events,  to  defeat  Lincoln, 
were  not  generally  favored  by  the  'fire-eaters'  who  vis 
ited  the  North,  whether  intent  on  politics,  business,  or 
pleasure ;  and,  in  some  instances,  those  who  sought  to 
commend  themselves  to  the  favor  of  their  Southern  pa 
trons  or  customers  by  an  exhibition  of  zeal  in  the  'fusion' 
cause,  were  quietly  told :  '  What  you  are  doing  looks  not 
to  the  end  we  desire;  we  want  Lincoln  elected.'  In  no 
slave  state  did  the  supporters  of  Breckenridge  unite  in 
any  'fusion'  movement  whatever;  and  it  was  a  very 
open  secret  that  the  friends  of  Breckenridge  generally — 
at  all  events  throughout  the  slave  states — next  to  the  all 
but  impossible  success  of  their  own  candidate,  preferred 
that  of  the  Eepublicans.  In  the  Senate  throughout  the 
preceding  session,  at  Charleston,  at  Baltimore,  and  ever 
since,  they  had  acted  precisely  as  they  would  have  done 
had  they  pre-eminently  desired  Mr.  Lincoln's  success,  and 
determined  to  do  their  best  to  secure  it." 

So  thoroughly  matured  was  the  project  of  secession  in 
the  minds  of  Southern  extremists  in  South  Carolina,  that 
they  are  known  actually  to  have  commenced  movements 


SOUTH  CAROLINA — GOVERNOR  GIST.  299 

looking  to  this  desired  end  before  even  the  presidential 
election  had  taken  place,  and  when  the  result  which  soon 
ensued  was  yet  but  a  strong  probability.  Accordingly 
we  find  Governor  Gist,  as  early  as  the  5th  of  November, 
1860,  addressing  a  message  to  the  South  Carolina  Legis 
lature,  embodying  the  following  bold  and  explicit  dec 
larations  : 

"  Under  ordinary  circumstances,  your  duty  could  be 
soon  discharged  by  the  election  of  electors  representing 
the  choice  of  the  people  of  the  state ;  but,  in  view  of  the 
threatening  aspect  of  affairs,  and  the  strong  probability 
of  the  election  to  the  presidency  of  a  sectional  candidate 
by  a  party  committed  to  the  support  of  measures  which, 
if  carried  out,  will  inevitably  destroy  our  equality  in  the 
Union,  and  ultimately  reduce  the  Southern  States  to 
mere  provinces  of  a  consolidated  despotism,  to  be  gov 
erned  by  a  fixed  majority  in  Congress  hostile  to  our  in 
stitutions  and  fatally  bent  upon  our  ruin,  I  would  re 
spectfully  suggest  that  the  Legislature  remain  in  session, 
and  take  such  action  as  will  prepare  the  state  for  any 
emergency  that  may  arise. 

"That  an  exposition  of  the  will  of  the  people  may  be 
obtained  on  a  question  involving  such  momentous  con 
sequences,  I  would  earnestly  recommend  that,  in  the 
event  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  election  to  the  presidency, 
a  Convention  of  the  people  of  this  state  be  immediately 
called,  to  consider  and  determine  for  themselves  the  mode 
and  measure  of  redress.  My  own  opinions  of  what  the 
Convention  should  do  are  of  little  moment ;  but,  believ 
ing  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  every  one,  however 
humble  he  may  be,  should  express  his  opinions  in  un- 


300  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

mistakable  language,  I  am  constrained  to  say  that  the 
only  alternative  left,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  secession  of 
South  Carolina  from  the  Federal  Union.  The  indica 
tions  from  many  of  the  Southern  States  justify  the  con 
clusion  that  the  secession  of  South  Carolina  will  be  im 
mediately  followed,  if  not  adopted  simultaneously  by 
them,  and  ultimately  by  the  entire  South.  The  long- 
desired  co-operation  of  the  other  states  having  similar 
institutions,  for  which  so  many  of  our  citizens  have  been 
waiting,  seems  to  be  near  at  hand,  and,  if  we  are  true  to 
ourselves,  will  soon  be  realized.  The  state  has,  with  great 
unanimity,  declared  that  she  has  the  right  peaceably  to  se 
cede,  and  no  power  on  earth  can  rightfully  prevent  it. 

"If,  in  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power,  and  forgetful 
of  the  lessons  of  history,  the  government  of  the  United 
States  should  attempt  coercion,  it  will  become  our  solemn 
duty  to  meet  force  by  force ;  and  whatever  may  be  the 
decision  of  the  Convention,  representing  the  sovereignty 
of  the  state,  and  amenable  to  no  earthly  tribunal,  it  shall, 
during  the  remainder  of  my  administration,  be  carried 
out  to  the  letter,  regardless  of  any  hazard  that  may  sur 
round  its  execution. 

"  I  would  also  respectfully  recommend  a  thorough  re 
organization  of  the  militia,  so  as  to  place  the  whole  mili 
tary  force  of  the  state  in  a  position  to  be  used  at  the  short 
est  notice  and  with  the  greatest  efficiency.  Every  man 
in  the  state  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five 
should  be  well  armed  with  the  most  efficient  weapons  of 
modern  warfare,  and  all  the  available  means  of  the  state 
used  for  that  purpose. 

"  In  addition  to  this  general  preparation,  I  would  rec- 


SENATOR  CHESNUT.  301 

ommend  that  the  services  of  ten  thousand  volunteers  be 
immediately  accepted ;  that  they  be  organized  and  drilled 
by  officers  chosen  by  themselves,  and  hold  themselves  in 
readiness  to  be  called  on  upon  the  shortest  notice.  With 
this  preparation  for  defense,  and  with  all  the  hallowed 
memories  of  past  achievements,  with  our  love  of  liberty, 
and  hatred  of  tyranny,  and  with  the  knowledge  that  we 
are  contending  for  the  safety  of  our  homes  and  firesides, 
we  can  confidently  appeal  to  the  Disposer  of  all  human 
events,  and  safely  trust  our  cause  in  his  keeping." 

Mr.  Chesnut,  then  a  United  States  senator,  and  whom 
I  well  remember  as  an  outspoken  advocate  of  secession 
in  1850,  being  present  at  the  opening  of  the  Legislature, 
is  reported  to  have  used  language  even  of  a  more  fervid 
and  menacing  character.  He  brought  to  bear  upon  a 
large  popular  assemblage  convened  in  Columbia  for  the 
purpose  of  listening  to  him  a  very  animated  harangue,  in 
which  he  is  represented  to  have  said  that,  "for  himself, 
he  would  unfurl  the  Palmetto  flag,  fling  it  to  the  breeze, 
and,  with  the  spirit  of  a  brave  man,  determined  to  live 
and  die  as  became  our  glorious  ancestors,  ring  the  clarion 
notes  of  defiance  in  the  ears  of  an  insolent  foe."  He  then 
spoke  of  the  "  undoubted  right  of  South  Carolina  to  with 
draw  the  powers  delegated  to  the  Federal  government," 
and  said  that  it "  would  be  its  duty,  in  the  event  contem 
plated,  to  withdraw  them." 

One  of  the  most  alarming  symptoms  then  exhibited  in 
South  Carolina  was  the  fact  that  several  of  her  eminent 
public  men,  including  Mr.  Orr  and  Mr.  Boyce,  both  of 
whom  had  in  former  days  been  set  down  among  the  con 
servatives,  were  now  as  eager  for  revolution  as  any  of 


302  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

those  who  had  been  working  for  it  night  and  day  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  I  desire  not  to  particularize  on 
this  painful  subject  to  an  extent  which  might  now  prove 
annoying,  and  therefore  proceed  briefly  to  state  that  the 
Legislature  of  South  Carolina  provided  for  the  assem 
blage  of  a  state  Convention,  the  members  of  which  were 
to  be  elected  on  the  6th  of  December,  while  the  conven 
tional  body  itself  was  to  come  together  on  the  19th  of  the 
same  month;  that  the  Convention  did  assemble  on  the 
last-mentioned  day,  and,  after  an  excited  debate  of  sev 
eral  days'  continuance,  adopted  an  Ordinance  of  Secession 
on  the  20th  of  December.  Commissioners  were  sent  with 
a  copy  of  the  ordinance  to  each  of  the  slave  states,  in  or 
der  to  quicken  co-operative  action,  and  notification  was 
duly  made  as  to  these  events  to  the  Federal  government 
in  Washington  City. 

The  next  secession  movement  it  was  expected  would 
come  off  in  the  State  of  Georgia.  A  Convention  for  this 
purpose  had  been  already  called.  It  was  known  that 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Herschel  V.  Johnson,  and  oth 
er  public  men,  of  elevated  standing  and  of  extended  in 
fluence,  would  be  members  of  the  Convention,  and  it  was 
expected  that  they  would  exert  themselves  to  the  utmost 
to  prevent  the  imitation  by  the  State  of  Georgia  of  the 
rash  example  which  had  just  been  set  by  South  Carolina; 
and  it  was  likewise  known  that  eminent  personages  from 
the  State  of  South  Carolina  would  attend  the  Convention 
of  Georgia,  in  order  to  urge  immediate  co-operation. 
Under  these  circumstances,  I  took  it  upon  myself  to  per 
suade  the  public  men  of  most  influence  in  the  city  of 
Nashville,  where  I  was  then  residing,  to  send  ten  or  fif- 


SECESSION   IN   GEOKGIA — ALEX.  H.  STEPHENS.     303 

teen  delegates  forthwith  to  Milledgeville,  respectfully 
and  earnestly  to  protest  against  extreme  action  on  the 
part  of  Georgia,  believing  as  I  did  that,  if  this  great  and 
vastly  influential  state  should  add  the  force  of  her  exam 
ple  to  that  of  South  Carolina,  all  the  cotton  states  would 
promptly  follow  in  the  same  track,  and  that  afterward  it 
would  not  be  possible  to  prevent  Tennessee  and  the  re 
maining  Southern  States  from  being  driven  into  the 
movement.  I  urged  these  views  for  several  days  most 
zealously,  but,  I  regret  to  say,  without  success ;  some  sup 
posing  that  there  was  no  serious  danger  of  the  Conven 
tion  of  Georgia  adopting  an  Ordinance  of  Secession,  and 
others  that  there  was  reason  to  fear,  if  we  should  send 
delegates  to  Milledgeville,  it  might  result  in  fatally  com 
promising  our  own  attitude.  The  manly  opposition 
made  by  Mr.  Stephens  to  the  attempt  to  draw  Geor 
gia  into  the  secession  maelstrom  is  well  known.  This 
want  of  success  is  a  circumstance  which  I  shall  ever  de 
plore  as  the  most  unfortunate  event  of  a  public  nature 
which  has  occurred  within  my  recollection.  Alabama, 
Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  were  now  soon 
enrolled  among  the  seceded  states.  Tennessee,  North 
Carolina,  Virginia,  Arkansas,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Mis 
souri,  and  Delaware  still  stood  firm,  despite  all  the  efforts 
essayect  to  shake  their  constancy. 

It  is  indeed  true,  as  Mr.  Greeley  has  deliberately  re 
corded,  that  after  the  secession  "conspiracy  had  held 
complete  possession  of  the  Southern  mind  for  three 
months,  with  the  Southern  members  of  the  cabinet,  near 
ly  all  the  Federal  officers,  most  of  the  governors  and 
other  state  functionaries,  and  seven  eighths  of  the  promi- 


304  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

nent  and  active  politicians  pushing  it  on,  and  no  force 
exerted  against  nor  in  any  manner  threatening  to  resist 
it,  a  majority  of  the  slave  states,  with  two  thirds  of  the 
free  population  of  the  entire  slaveholding  region,  was 
openly  and  positively  adverse  to  it,  either  because  they 
regarded  the  alleged  grievances  of  the  South  as  exagger 
ated  if  not  unreal,  or  because  they  believed  that  those 
wrongs  would  rather  be  aggravated  than  cured  by  dis 
union." 

The  cotton  states  having  seceded  from  the  Union  in 
the  manner  described,  great  uneasiness  became  manifest 
among  the  true  patriots  of  the  republic  every  where,  and 
prodigious  efforts  were  made  at  various  places,  and  in  va 
rious  modes,  to  arrest  the  coming  storm. 

In  looking  back  to  this  tempestuous  and  critical  pe 
riod,  it  is  eminently  gratifying  to  observe  how  multiplied 
were  the  evidences  of  a  desire  to  prevent  those  fearful 
scenes  of  domestic  commotion  and  violence  which  seemed 
to  be  now  almost  at  hand.  In  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
on  the  13th  of  December,  a  large  popular  assemblage 
was  called  together  at  Independence  Square,  where 
speeches  were  delivered  and  resolutions  adopted  worthy 
even  of- the  illustrious  era  of  '76.  The  first  of  the  reso 
lutions  referred  to  pledged  "the  people  of  Philadelphia 
to  the  citizens  of  the  other  states  that  the  statute-books 
of  Pennsylvania  should  be  carefully  searched  at  the  ap 
proaching  session  of  the  Legislature,  and  that  every  stat 
ute,  if  any  such  there  was,  which  in  the  slightest  degree 
invaded  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  citizens  of  a  sis 
ter  state,  should  be  at  once  repealed."  The  closing  reso 
lution  of  the  meeting  declared  that  "  all  denunciations  of 


WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD  AND  THURLOW  WEED.      305 

slavery  as  existing  in  the  United  States,  and  of  citizens 
who  held  slaves  under  it,  were  inconsistent  with  the 
spirit  of  brotherhood  and  kindness  which  ought  to  ani 
mate  all  who  live  under  and  support  the  Constitution  of 
the  American  Union."  Nor  was  the  newspaper  press  of 
the  North  inactive  in  the  work  of  conciliation  and  com 
promise  at  this  very  perilous  moment.  The  gentleman 
who  had  for  so  many  years  edited  with  signal  ability 
The  Albany  Evening  Journal  (Mr.  Thurlow  Weed),  and 
who  was  generally  understood  as  presenting,  to  a  consid 
erable  extent,  the  views  of  Mr.  Seward,  brought  forward 
at  this  period  a  plan  of  concessions  to  the  South  of  a  most 
equitable  and  judicious  character,  which  he  subsequently 
vindicated,  upon  its  being  assailed  by  the  more  rabid 
portion  of  the  Kepublican  press,  in  the  most  conclusive 
and  triumphant  manner.  Mr.  Weed  did  not  hesitate,  in 
a  bold  and  explicit  manner,  to  declare,  1st,  that  there  was 
"imminent  danger  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union;"  2d, 
that  "  this  danger  originated  in  the  ambition  and  cupid 
ity  of  men  who  desired  a  Southern  despotism,  and  in  the 
fanatic  zeal  of  Northern  abolitionists,"  who,  he  charged, 
sought  "  the  emancipation  of  slaves  regardless  of  conse 
quences."  He  asserted  that  the  "danger  could  only  be 
averted  by  such  moderation  and  forbearance  as  will  draw 
out,  strengthen,  and  combine  the  Union  sentiment  of  the 
whole  country."  He  declared,  and  most  truly,  that  there 
was  undoubtedly  "  a  Union  sentiment  in  the  South  worth 
cherishing ;"  and  said,  in  a  spirit  of  wise  and  statesman 
like  liberality  worthy  even  of  Webster  himself,  in  refer 
ence  to  this  Union  sentiment  in  the  South,  "It  will  de 
velop  and  expand  as  fast  as  the  darkness  and  delusion 


306  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

in  relation  to  the  feelings  of  the  North  can  be  dispelled. 
This  calls  for  moderation  and  forbearance.  We  do  not, 
when  our  dwelling  is  in  flames,  stop  to  ascertain  whether 
it  was  the  work  of  an  incendiary  before  we  extinguish 
the  fire.  Hence  our  suggestions  of  a  basis  of  adjustment, 
without  the  expectation  that  they  would  be  accepted  in 
terms  by  either  section,  but  that  they  might  possibly  in 
augurate  a  movement  in  that  direction.  The  Union  is 
worth  preserving  ;  and,  if  worth  preserving,  suggestions 
in  its  behalf,  however  crude,  will  not  be  contemned.  A 
victorious  party  can  afford  to  be  tolerant  —  not,  as  our 
friends  assume,  in  the  abandonment  or  abasement  of  its 
principles  or  character,  but  in  efforts  to  correct  and  dis 
abuse  the  minds  of  those  who  misunderstand  both. 

"Before  a  final  appeal,  before  a  resort  to  the  'rough 
frown  of  war,'  we  should  like  to  see  a  convention  of  the 
people,  consisting  of  delegates  appointed  by  the  states. 
After  more  than  seventy  years  of  *  wear  and  tear,'  of  col 
lision  and  abrasion,  it  should  be  no  cause  of  wonder  that 
the  machinery  of  government  is  found  weakened,  or  out 
of  repair,  or  even  defective.  Nor  would  it  be  found  un 
profitable  for  the  North  and  South,  bringing  their  re 
spective  griefs,  claims,  and  proposed  reforms  to  a  com 
mon  arbitrament,  to  meet,  discuss,  and  determine  upon  a 
future. 

"  It  will  be  said  that  we  have  done  nothing  wrong,  and 
have  nothing  to  offer.  This,  supposing  it  true,  is  precise 
ly  the  reason  why  we  should  both  propose  and  offer  what 
ever  may  by  possibility  avert  the  evils  of  civil  war,  and 
prevent  the  destruction  of  our  hitherto  unexampled  bless 
ings  of  union." 


NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE  ACQUIESCENT  IN  SECESSION.   307 

Whatever  may  have  been  heretofore  asserted  to  the 
contrary,  I  am  prepared  to  bear  witness  that  these  timely 
publications  of  Mr.  Weed  had  an  exceedingly  mollifying 
effect  upon  the  general  popular  mind  of  the  South,  and 
especially  in  the  border  states,  as  they  were  called,  in 
cluding  the  State  of  Tennessee,  where  strong  hopes  were 
now  beginning  to  be  entertained  that  some  wise  and  mu 
tually  satisfactory  scheme  of  pacification  would  soon  be 
adopted. 

I  will  here  incidentally  notice  two  remarkable  an 
nouncements  which  were  made  at  this  period  in  two  ri 
val  Northern  papers,  which  together  have  such  an  extend^ 
ed  circulation  in  the  various  parts  of  the  republic  as  it  is 
believed  no  other  two  journals  have  ever  had.  I  will  not 
undertake  to  estimate  the  combined  force  of  such  co-op 
erative  declarations  among  those  who  were  now  medi 
tating  disunion,  but  all  sound-thinking  men  will  readily 
admit  that  it  must  have  been  considerable.  The  New 
York  Tribune  said : 

"  If  the  cotton  states  consider  the  value  of  the  Union 
debatable,  we  maintain  their  perfect  right  to  discuss  it; 
nay,  we  hold,  with  Jefferson,  to  the  inalienable  right  of 
communities  to  alter  or  abolish  forms  of  government  that 
have  become  oppressive  or  injurious ;  and  if  the  cotton 
states  shall  decide  that  they  can  do  better  out  of  the 
Union  than  in  it,  we  insist  on  letting  them  go  in  peace. 
The  right  to  secede  may  be  a  revolutionary  one,  but  it 
exists  nevertheless;  and  we  do  not  see  how  one  party 
has  a  right  to  do  what  another  party  has  a  right  to  pre 
vent.  We  must  even  resist  the  asserted  right  of  any 
state  to  remain  in  the  Union  and  nullify  or  defy  the  laws 


308  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

thereof.  To  withdraw  from  the  Union  is  quite  another 
matter ;  and  whenever  a  considerable  section  of  our  Union 
shall  deliberately  resolve  to  go  out,  we  shall  resist  all  co 
ercive  measures  designed  to  keep  them  in.  We  hope 
never  to  live  in  a  republic  whereof  one  section  is  pinned 
to  the  residue  with  bayonets."  The  New  York  Herald 
had  said,  on  the  llth  of  November, 

"  If,  however,  Northern  fanaticism  should  triumph  over 
us,  and  the  Southern  States  should  exercise  their  undeni 
able  right  to  secede  from  the  Union,  then  the  city  of  New 
York,  the  river  counties,  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  and 
very  likely  Connecticut,  would  separate  from  those  New 
England  and  Western  States,  where  the  black  man  is  put 
upon  a  pinnacle  above  the  white.  New  York  City  is  for 
the  Union  first,  and  the  gallant  and  chivalrous  South  aft 
erward." 

Tennessee  and  the  border  states  were  calmly  and 
thoughtfully  awaiting  the  chapter  of  events,  when  Con 
gress  convened  on  the  3d  of  December,  and  received  that 
extraordinary  message  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  of  which  a  few 
striking  extracts  will  be  here  presented. 

"Why  is  it,  then,  that  discontent  now  so  extensively 
prevails,  and  the  union  of  the  states,  which  is  the  source 
of  all  these  blessings,  is  threatened  with  destruction? 
The  long-continued  and  intemperate  interference  of  the 
Northern  people  with  the  question  of  slavery  in  the 
Southern  States  has  at  length  produced  its  natural  ef 
fects.  The  different  sections  of  the  Union  are  now  ar 
rayed  against  each  other;  and  the  time  has  arrived,  so 
much  dreaded  by  the  Father  of  his  Country,  when  hos 
tile  geographical  parties  have  been  formed.  I  have  long 


JAMES  BUCHANAN  ALARMED.         309 

foreseen,  and  often  forewarned  my  countrymen  of  the  now 
impending  danger.  This  does  not  proceed  solely  from 
the  claims  on  the  part  of  Congress  or  the  territorial  Leg 
islatures  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  territories,  nor  from 
the  efforts  of  different  states  to  defeat  the  execution  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

"All  or  any  of  these  evils  might  have  been  endured 
by  the  South  without  danger  to  the  Union  (as  others 
have  been),  in  the  hope  that  time  and  reflection  might 
apply  the  remedy.  The  immediate  peril  arises  not  so 
much  from  these  causes  as  from  the  fact  that  the  inces 
sant  and  violent  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  through 
out  the  North  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  at 
length  produced  its  malign  influence  on  the  slaves,  and 
inspired  them  with  vague  notions  of  freedom.  Hence  a 
sense  of  security  no  longer  exists  around  the  family  al 
tar,  This  feeling  of  peace  at  home  has  given  place  to 
apprehensions  of  servile  insurrection.  Many  a  matron 
throughout  the  South  retires  at  night  in  dread  of  what 
may  befall  herself  and  her  children  before  the  morning. 
Should  this  apprehension  of  domestic  danger,  whether 
real  or  imaginary,  extend  and  intensify  itself  until  it  shall 
pervade  the  masses  of  the  Southern  people,  then  disunion 
will  become  inevitable.  Self-preservation  is  the  first  law 
of  Nature,  and  has  been  implanted  in  the  heart  of  man 
by  his  Creator  for  the  wisest  purpose ;  and  no  political 
union,  however  fraught  with  blessings  and  benefits  in  all 
other  respects,  can  long  continue,  if  the  necessary  conse 
quence  be  to  render  the  homes  and  the  firesides  of  near 
ly  half  the  parties  to  it  habitually  anil  hopelessly  insecure. 
Sooner  or  later  the  bonds  of  such  a  union  must  be  sev-- 


310  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

ered.  It  is  my  conviction  that  this  fatal  period  has  not 
yet  arrived,  and  my  prayer  to  God  is  that  He  would  pre 
serve  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  throughout  all  gen 
erations. 

"  What,  in  the  mean  time,  is  the  responsibility  and  true 
position  of  the  executive  ?  He  is  bound  by  solemn  oath, 
before  God  and  the  country,  '  to  take  care  that  the  laws 
be  faithfully  executed/  and  from  this  obligation  he  can 
not  be  absolved  by  any  human  power.  But  what  if  the 
performance  of  this  duty,  in  whole  or  in  part,  has  been 
rendered  impracticable  by  events  over  which  he  could 
have  exercised  no  control?  Such,  at  the  present  mo 
ment,  is  the  case  throughout  the  State  of  South  Carolina, 
so  far  as  the  laws  of  the  United  States  to  secure  the  ad 
ministration  of  justice  by  means  of  the  Federal  judiciary 
are  concerned.  All  the  Federal  officers  within  its  lim 
its,  through  whose  agency  alone  these  laws  can  be  car 
ried  into  execution,  have  already  resigned.  We  no  lon 
ger  have  a  district  judge,  a  district  attorney,  or  a  marshal 
in  South  Carolina.  In  fact,  the  whole  machinery  of  the 
Federal  government  necessary  for  the  distribution  of 
remedial  justice  among  the  people  has  been  demolished, 
and  it  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  replace  it. 

"  The  only  acts  of  Congress  on  the  statute-book  bear 
ing  upon  this  subject  are  those  of  the  28th  of  February, 
1795,  and  3d  of  March,  1807.  These  authorize  the  Pres 
ident,  after  he  shall  have  ascertained  that  the  marshal, 
with  his  posse  comitatus,  is  unable  to  execute  civil  or  crim 
inal  process  in  any  particular  case,  to  call  out  the  militia, 
and  employ  the  army  and  navy  to  aid  him  in  performing 
this  service,  having  first,  by  proclamation,  commanded 


MR.  BUCHANAN  OPPOSED  TO   COERCION.  311 

the  insurgents  to  ( disperse,  and  retire  peaceably  to  their 
respective  abodes  within  a  limited  time.'  This  duty  can 
not  by  possibility  be  performed  in  a  state  where  no  judi 
cial  authority  exists  to  issue  process,  and  where  there  is 
no  marshal  to  execute  it,  and  where,  even  if  there  were 
such  an  officer,  the  entire  population  would  constitute 
on,e  solid  combination  to  resist  him." 

But  the  questio  questionum  is  thus  pointedly  and  clear 
ly  propounded  by  Mr.  Buchanan  in  his  message,  thus : 

"The  question,  fairly  stated,  is,  Has  the  Constitution 
delegated  to  Congress  the  power  to  coerce  into  submis 
sion  a  state  which  is  attempting  to  withdraw,  or  has  act 
ually  withdrawn,  from  the  confederacy  ?  If  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  it  must  be  on  the  principle  that  the 
power  has  been  conferred  upon  Congress  to  declare  and 
to  make  war  against  a  state.  After  much  serious  reflec 
tion,  I  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  no  such  power 
has  been  delegated  to  Congress  or  to  any  other  depart 
ment  of  the  Federal  government.  It  is  manifest,  upon 
an  inspection  of  the  Constitution,  that  this  is  not  among 
the  specific  and  enumerated  powers  granted  to  Congress, 
and  it  is  equally  apparent  that  its  exercise  is  not  f  neces 
sary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution'  any  one  of 
these  powers." 

The  message  of  the  President  was  referred  to  a  special 
committee  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  on  the  mo 
tion  of  Mr.  A.  E.  Boteler,  of  Virginia,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  placed  Mr.  Thomas  Corwin,  of  Ohio ;  but  even 
while  these  efforts  at  pacification  were  proceeding  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  a  stormy  debate  was  in  prog 
ress  in  the  Senate,  of  which  the  following  extracts  may 


312  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

serve  to  show  the  wild  and  disorganizing  spirit  now  prev 
alent  in  that  body.  Mr.  Clingman,  of  North  Carolina, 
said: 

"  They  want  to  get  up  a  free  debate,  as  the  senator 
from  New  York  (Mr.  Seward)  expressed  it  in  one  of  his 
speeches.  But  a  senator  from  Texas  told  me  the  other 
day  that  a  great  many  of  these  free  debaters  were  hanging 
from  the  trees  of  that  country  (Texas).  I  have  no  doubt 
they  would  run  off  a  great  many  slaves  from  the  border 
states,  so  as  to  make  them  free  states ;  and  then,  sir, 
when  the  overt  act  was  struck,  we  should  have  a  hard 
struggle.  I  say,  therefore,  that  our  policy  is  not  to  let 
this  thing  continue.  That,  I  think,  is  the  opinion  of  North 
Carolina.  I  think  the  party  for  immediate  secession  is 
gaining  ground  rapidly.  It  is  idle  for  men  to  shut  their 
eyes  to  consequences  like  this,  if  any  thing  can  be  done 
to  avert  the  evil  while  we  have  power  to  do  it." 

Mr.  Iverson,  of  Georgia,  said: 

"  Gentlemen  speak  of  concession — of  the  repeal  of  the 
Personal  Liberty  Bills.  Eepeal  them  all  to-morrow,  and 
you  can  not  stop  this  revolution.  It  is  not  the  liberty 
laws,  but  the  mob  law,  which  the  South  fears.  They  do 
not  dread  these  overt  acts ;  for,  without  the  power  of  the 
Federal  government,  by  force,  under  Eepublican  rule, 
their  institution  would  not  last  ten  years,  and  they  know 
it.  They  intend  to  go  out  of  this  Union,  and  he  believed 
this.  Before  the  4th  of  March,  five  states  will  have  de 
clared  their  independence,  and  he  was  satisfied  that  three 
other  states  would  follow  as  soon  as  the  action  of  their 
people  can  be  had.  Arkansas  will  call  her  Convention, 
and  Louisiana  will  follow.  And,  though  there  is  a  clog 


SECESSIONIST!  AND   UNIONISM  IN   CONFLICT.      313 

in  the  way  in  the  *  lone  star'  of  Texas  in  the  person  of 
her  governor,  who  will  not  consent  to  call  the  Legislature, 
yet  the  public  sentiment  is  so  strong  that  even  her  gov 
ernor  may  be  overridden ;  and,  if  he.  will  not  yield  to  that 
public  sentiment,  some  Texan  Brutus  may  arise  to  rid  his 
country  of  this  old,  hoary-headed  traitor.  (Great  sensation.) 
There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  vaporing  and  threatening, 
but  they  came  from  the  last  men  who  would  carry  out 
their  threats.  Men  talk  about  their  eighteen  millions ; 
but  we  hear  a  few  days  afterward  of  these  same  men  be 
ing  switched  in  the  face,  and  they  tremble  like  a  sheep- 
stealing  dog.  There  will  be  no  war.  The  North,  gov 
erned  by  such  far-seeing  statesmen  as  the  senator  from 
New  York  (Mr.  Seward),  will  see  the  futility  of  this.  In 
less  than  twelve  months  a  Southern  Confederacy  will  be 
formed,  and  it  will  be  the  most  successful  government  on 
earth.  The  Southern  States,  thus  banded  together,  will 
be  able  to  resist  any  force  in  the  world.  We  do  not  ex 
pect  war,  but  we  will  be  prepared  for  it;  and  we  are  not 
a  feeble  race  of  Mexicans  either." 

The  venerable  John  J.  Crittenden  and  others  spoke 
earnestly  in  favor  of  conciliation  and  peace  ;  while  A.  Gr. 
Brown,  of  Mississippi,  and  Mr.  Wigfall,  of  Texas,  and  oth 
ers  from  the  South,  poured  forth  most  heated  and  violent 
harangues  in  favor  of  extreme  measures. 

I  shall  not  undertake  to  describe  all  the  various  prop 
ositions  in  either  house  of  Congress,  emanating  alike 
from  Northern  and  Southern  members,  looking  to  the  ad 
justment  of  the  pending  issues.  More  unamiable,  more 
wordy  and  profitless  discussions,  have  seldom  occurred 
in  any  part  of  the  world,  nor  will  future  generations  be 

O 


314  SGYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

very  strongly  tempted  to  do  more  than  glance  over  them 
in  the  most  cursory  manner;  though  there  were  then 
undoubtedly  a  small  number  of  individuals,  both  in  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Kepresentatives,  of  whose  wise  and 
noble  conduct  at  this  crisis  the  future  historian  will  be 
pleased  to  make  honorable  mention. 

There  are  one  or  two  observations  which  I  will  here 
offer  as  the  result  of  much  meditation,  and  a  most  impar 
tial  examination  of  disputed  facts  and  conflicting  state 
ments. 

1.  It  would  have  been  quite  easy  for  the  Southern 
members  of  the  Thirty -fifth  Congress,  had  they  come  to 
Washington  in  the  true  compromising  and  conciliatory 
spirit,  to  have  obtained  such  an  adjustment  of  all  the  sec 
tional  issues  then  pending  as  would  have  been  altogether 
in  keeping  with  Southern  honor,  and  preservative  of 
Southern  slaveholding  rights. 

2.  The  Democratic  party  having  by  recent  elections 
secured  a  majority  of  votes  in  both  houses  of  Congress, 
there  was  not  even  a  possibility  of  slaveholding  rights 
being  subjected  to  serious  detriment,  had  Southern  sen 
ators  and  representatives  been  alike  wise  in  guarding 
and  protecting  the  interests  of  their  constituents,  and 
anxious  to  perform  their  duty  faithfully  to  the  whole 
.  republic. 

3.  There  were  several  distinct  legislative  propositions 
brought  forward  by  Northern   members  either  of  one 
house  or  the  other,  the  acceptance  of  any  one  of  which 
by  the  South  would  at  once  have  terminated  all  contro 
versy. 

4.  Mr.  Crittenden's  resolutions  of  compromise  could, 


OBSERVATIONS.  315 

doubtless,  have  been  obtained,  but  for  the  fact  that  certain 
Southern  senators,  five  in  number  (evidently  by  precon 
cert),  when  the  motion  to  substitute  the  two  resolutions 
of  Mr.  Clarke  in  lieu  of  them  was  voted  upon,  refused  to 
vote  at  all  /  when,  had  they  voted,  as  they  ought  to  have 
done,  Mr.  Clarke's  resolutions  would  have  been  defeated 
by  a  vote  of  28  to  25,  and  Mr-  Crittenden's  have  been 
afterward  adopted. 

5.- When  the  last  test- vote  upon  Clarke's  substitute 
was  taken  in  the  Senate  just  before  the  session  termin 
ated,  Crittenden's  resolutions  of  compromise  were  defeat 
ed  only  by  a  vote  of  20  to  19,  a  number  of  the  Southern 
senators  having,  meanwhile,  with  equal  want  of  true  wis 
dom  and  of  practical  fidelity  to  the  South,  resigned  their 
seats  in  Congress  and  returned  to  their  own  homes,  to 
aid  in  consummating  the  work  of  secession  then  in  such 
active  progress. 

6.  The  following  proposition  offered  by  Mr.  Seward  in 
the  senatorial  committee  of  13,  had  it  been  accepted  in 
behalf  of  the  South,  and  incorporated  into  the  Federal 
Constitution,  would  have  given  substantial  security  to  the 
slaveholding  rights  of  the  South :  "  JSTo  amendment  shall 
be  made  to  the  Constitution  which  will  authorize  or  give 
to  Congress  any  power  to  abolish  or  interfere  in  any 
state  with  the  domestic  institutions  thereof,  including  that 
of  persons  held  to  service  or  labor  by  the  laws  of  said 
state."     To  this  proposition,  strange  to  say  (as  is  now 
well  known),  Mr.  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  and  Mr.  Toombs, 
of  Georgia,  refused  to  yield  their  support  in  said  com 
mittee. 

7.  The  resolutions  reported  to  the  House  of  Represent- 


316  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

atives  by  the  grand  committee  of  that  body,  and  sustain 
ed  in  the  house  in  which  they  originated,  as  they  would 
doubtless  have  been  in  the  Senate,  had  Southern  senators 
been  at  their  posts,  and  ready  and  willing  to  do  their 
duty,  would  have  given  as  much  security  to  the  slave- 
holding  rights  of  the  South  as  could  in  reason  have  been 
demanded. 

8.  The  joint  resolve  reported  by  the  grand  committee 
of  the  House  for  the  amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion,  which  passed  both  houses,  and  which,  on  its  ratifi 
cation  by  a  sufficient  number  of  states,  would  have  be 
come  part  of  the  supreme  law  of  the  laud,  and  have  pre 
cluded  forever  all  interference  with  slaveholding  inter 
ests  in  any  state  not  consenting  thereto,  was  indignantly 
rejected  by  excited  Southern  senators,  who  preferred  in 
curring  all  the  perils  of  disunion  to  accepting  any  of  the 
new  securities  now  tendered  to  them. 

So  Southern  secession  senators  and  representatives, 
abandoning  their  seats  in  the  two  houses  of  Congress, 
and  thus  leaving  their  Eepublican  adversaries  in  control 
of  those  bodies,  and  of  all  the  resources  and  power  of 
this  gigantic  republic,  hurried  on  toward  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  where,  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  of  deliber 
ation,  with  closed  doors,  they  agreed  upon  and  promulga 
ted  to  the  world  the  most  ill-digested,  incongruous,  and 
utterly  impracticable  Constitution  of  government  that 
the  "  rash  dexterity"  of  visionary  theorists  has  ever  been 
able  to  eliminate,  under  the  nominal  guidance  and  con 
trol  of  which  a  new  confederacy  was  to  have  its  confused 
and  anomalous  action ;  an  unnatural  and  bloody  civil 
war  was  to  be  commenced  and  prosecuted;  state-rights 


MADNESS  IN  HIGH  PLACES.  317 

and  popular  freedom  were  to  be  speedily  overthrown ; 
such,  gross  mismanagement,  both  of  civil  and  military  af 
fairs,  was  to  be  practiced  by  a  vain,  prejudiced,  and  in 
competent  executive  chief  as  the  world  had  never  before 
witnessed;  under  the  authority  of  which  government 
free-born  American  citizens  were  to  be  cruelly  hunted 
down,  plunged  into  filthy  prison-houses,  and  even  de 
prived  in  some  instances  of  life  itself,  for  daring  to  enter 
tain  and  express  Union  sentiments,  and  to  maintain  a 
quiet  and  peaceable,  but  a  stubborn  and  inflexible  loyal 
ty  to  the  government  of  their  fathers ;  under  which  gov 
ernment  all  rights  of  person  and  property  were  to  be  set 
at  naught  and  trampled  under  foot,  and  even  the  boasted 
right  of  peaceable  state  secession  to  be  formally  and  delib 
erately  denied  ;  and  the  long  -  venerated  slaveholding 
rights,  for  the  defense  and  maintenance  of  which  this  un 
wise  and  wasting  war  had  been  projected,  were,  in  the 
fourth  year  of  that  very  war,  to  be,  upon  the  ground  of 
military  necessity,  declared  by  a  dogmatical  executive  re 
script,  subject  to  be  violated,  and  even  abrogated,  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  great  central  agency  in  Eichmond,  which 
no  longer  held  itself  responsible  to  either  God  or  man  for 
its  official  acts. 


* 

318  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Speculative  Views  as  to  the  self-defensive  Powers  of  all  Governments, 
and  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  particular. — View  of 
the  Circumstances  existing,*so  far  as  the  State  of  Tennessee  is  con 
cerned,  in  the  Outset  of  the  War,  and  Vindication  of  the  Conduct  of 
that  State. — View  of  the  Condition  of  Things  existing  in  Washington 
in  particular,  and  of  the  non-action  Policy  of  Mr.  Buchanan. — Notice 
of  this  Gentleman's  late  Defense  of  himself. — View  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
moderate  and  patriotic  Conduct  after  his  Election,  and  Notice  of 
Speeches  made  J)y  him  at  Indianapolis,  Pittsburg,  and  Philadelphia. — 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Inaugural  Speech,  and  commendatory  Remarks  there 
upon. — Admirably  patriotic  Speech  of  Mr.  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of 
Georgia,  demonstrating  the  gross  Impolicy  of  Secession. — Some  Allu 
sions  to  the  early  Movements  of  the  War,  and  a  short  Discussion  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine. — Enforcement  of  that  Doctrine  the  true  Means  of  re 
storing  the  national  Unity  and  Concord. 

IT  would  seem  almost  impossible  to  state  a  proposition 
more  axiomatic  in  its  character  than  the  following  one : 
Every  government,  being  framed  with  a  view  to  perpetu 
ity,  must  needs  possess  the  power  of  defending  its  own 
existence,  and  all  its  essential  rights,  as  well  against  dan 
gers  from  without  as  from  perils  which  disclose  them 
selves  in  the  bosom  of  the  body  politic.  And  this  self- 
evident  proposition  would  seem  to  include,  by  necessary 
implication,  another,  viz. :  That  self-preservation,  being' 
the  general  law  of  Nature,  and  applicable  alike  to  all  con 
ventional  associations  as  to  all  living  creatures  in  their 
original  character,  whenever  it  shall  happen,  amid  the 
complex  and  critical  emergencies  which  it  is  in  the  pow- 


A  LEAGUE  AND  A  GOVERNMENT.  319 

er  of  a  long-continuing  war  to  engender,  to  have  become 
plainly  necessary  to  resort  to  the  use  of  expedients  the 
need  of  which  the  most  long-sighted  and  clear-visioned 
lawgiver  could  scarcely  be  supposed  to  have  specially 
anticipated,  all  such  expedients  must  be  regarded  as  right 
fully  subject  to  be  employed.  The  quality  which  chiefly 
distinguished  the  Constitution  framed  by  our  fathers  in 
1788  from  the  Articles  of  Confederation  which  it  super 
seded,  is,  that  whereas  the  power  of  the  latter  could  only 
operate  on  states,  as  integral  members  of  the  confederative 
association,  that  of  the  former  was  intended,  on  the  con 
trary,  to  act  on  individual  citizens  of  those  states.  These 
states,  after  the  essential  change  in  their  character  and  at 
tributes  which  had  been  then  wrought,  were  no  longer 
entitled  to  recognize  themselves  as  the  sovereign  mem 
bers  of  a  league,  but  as  existing,  though  still  retaining 
their  corporate  capacity,  in  a  condition  in  which  they 
were  bound  to-do  fealty  and  exercise  true  homage,  in 
many  interesting  respects,  to  that  which,  by  solemn  con 
ventional  arrangement,  had  been  entitled  to  claim  respect 
and  obedience  as  a  government  of  supereminent  authority. 
The  power  to  constrain  individual  citizens,  whether 
few  or  many,  who,  enjoying  the  protection  of  the  govern 
ment,  are  bound  to  exercise  toward  this  grand  represent 
ative  of  the  whole  nation  such  a  loyal  and  effective  obe 
dience  as  the  organic  law  itself  contemplates,  is  by  no 
means  inconsistent  with  the  continued  existence  of  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  states  and  people  thereof,  the  clue 
preservation  and  maintenance  of  which  is,  indeed,  one  of 
the  most  sacred  duties  of  the  government  established  by 
all,  for  the  safety  and  liberty  of  all.  Those  who  persist  in 


320  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

recognizing  the  old  confederative  compact  as  continuing 
to  survive,  and  who  hold  on,  in  spite  of  all  the  lights  of 
history  and  all  the  force  of  argument,  to  the  monstrous 
doctrine  of  secession,  may  well  feel  justified  in  denying 
to  the  government  at  present  in  operation  authority  to 
enforce  the  duty  of  obedience  within  the  confines  of  the 
individual  states,  in  opposition  to  acts  of  the  local  govern 
ments  adopted  for  the  express  purpose  of  nullifying  the 
ties  of  allegiance  existing  at  the  time  of  the  framing  of 
such  acts  between  those  very  citizens  and  the  govern 
ment  whose  various  forms  of  legislative  action  have  been 
alone  declared,  by  the  solemn  organic  instrument  to 
which  all  owe  the  most  profound  respect,  to  constitute 
"the  supreme  law  of  the  land"  Since  Mr.  Webster's  cele 
brated  replies  to  Mr.  Hayne  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  more  than 
thirty  years  ago,  and  the  emanation  of  General  Jackson's 
world-famous  proclamation,  few,  if  any,  except  the  open 
supporters  of  the  absurd  and  untenable  theory  of  abso 
lute  state  sovereignty,  have  undertaken  to  dispute  the 
right  of  the  Federal  government  to  compel  all  within  the 
scope  of  its  authority  to  bow  in  unresisting  submission 
to  its  lawful  behests. 

It  does  not,  by  any  means,  follow  necessarily,  from 
this  view  of  the  subject,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  Mr.  Bu 
chanan,  and  of  the  Congress  to  whom  -his  last  annual 
message  was  addressed,  to  wage  war  upon  the  seceding 
states  so  soon  as  any  one  or  more  of  them  had  proclaimed 
their  connection  with  the  Federal  government  at  an  end. 
Happily  for  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  the  inhabitants 
of  earth,  the  illimitable  power  of  the  Deity  is  not  always 
inclined  to  reveal  itself,  for  the  punishment  of  the  err- 


ANDREW  JOHNSON'S  SOUND  CONSTITUTIONAL  VIEWS.  321 

ing,  untempered  with  the  gentler  attributes  which  belong 
to  his  beneficent  nature ;  and,  at  the  period  in  American 
history  which  we  are  now  reviewing,  there  were  most 
weighty  considerations  which,  in  my  judgment,  most 
fully  justified  those  then  in  power  in  the  exercise  of  a 
moderation  and  forbearance  which  President  Lincoln  and 
his  newly-appointed  cabinet  were,  in  the  spring  of  1861, 
extremely  desirous  of  effectively  employing. 

The  personage  now  occupying  the  high  position  of 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  whose  commendable 
efforts  to  restore  harmony  and  kindly  feeling  among  the 
thirty  millions  who  constitute  this  great  nation,  have  se 
cured  for  him  already  the  gratitude  of  all  who  love  free 
dom  and  abhor  oppression,  did,  in  my  opinion,  declare 
the  true  doctrine  in  regard  to  the  relative  powers  belong 
ing  to  the  associated  departments  of  our  system  of  gov 
ernment  on  the  memorable  occasion  when  he  exerted 
himself  so  nobly  to  check,  in  its  early  developments,  the 
ambitious  and  lawless  project  of  breaking  up  forever 
this  sublime  consociation  of  prosperous  and  happy  com 
monwealths.  I  shall  here  take  the  liberty  of  suggesting 
that  those  who  attach  serious  blame  to  the  conduct  of 
the  good  people  of  Tennessee  at  this  period,  where  the 
doctrine  of  secession  was  in  fact  never  ratified,  and  where 
all  that  was  done,  in  the  first  instance,  was  simply  to  put 
the  state  in  an  attitude  of  defense  against  dangers  supposed 
at  the  time  to  be  imminent,  would  do  well  to  take  into 
consideration  the  theoretical  notions  at  that  time  ex 
pounded  by  President  Buchanan  himself,  and,  still  more 
elaborately,  by  his  attorney  general,  Mr.  Black.  Nor 
should  it  be  forgotten  by  those  in  whose  hearts  the  dis- 

O  2 


322  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

position  to  practice  justice  is  faithfully  cherished,  that  the 
people  of  this  august  commonwealth  had  voted  down  by 
an  overwhelming  vote,  in  the  month  of  February,  1861, 
the  proposition  to  call  into  existence  a  State  Convention 
for  the  simple  purpose  of  peaceably  considering  existing 
dangers  and  grievances ;  and  that,  while  the  proposition 
to  hold  such  a  Convention  at  all  was  most  decidedly 
negatived,  it  is  an  ascertained  fact  that,  had  the  proposed 
Convention  been  even  allowed  to  assemble,  a  very  large 
majority  of  its  members  would  have  utterly  repudiated 
all  hostile  movements  against  the  Federal  government. 
It  is  but  justice,  too,  to  an  intelligent,  gallant,  and  truly 
patriotic  people,  to  bear  in  remembrance  the  fact  that 
Tennessee  resisted  all  attempts  to  draw  her  into  a  disloy 
al  and  rebellious  attitude  until  the  various  attempts  at 
•compromise  in  "Washington  City  had  all  signally  failed; 
until  the  exciting  passage  of  arms  at  Fort  Sumter  had 
taken  place ;  until  President  Lincoln's  proclamation  call 
ing  out  ^seventy -five  thousand  troops  had  emanated ;  un 
til  the  suggestive  and  encouraging  declarations  of  certain 
Northern  newspapers,  and  the  still  more  encouraging 
and  persuasive  declarations  of  certain  influential  public 
men  of  the  free  states,  had  gained  general  circulation ; 
and  until  the  time-honored  and  conservative  States  off 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  had  both  resolved  upon 
uniting  their  destiny  with  that  of  the  original  seceding 
states ;  and  that,  at  last,  no  formal  act  of  secession  was 
committed,  but  a  simple  military  and  civil  league  entered 
into. 

For  myself,  while  I  willingly  do  homage  to  the  supe 
rior  firmness  and  constancy  of  others,  and  though  I  am 


VINDICATION   OF  TENNESSEE.  323 

not  at  all  confident  of  receiving  much  allowance  at  the 
hands  of  the  present  excited  generation  for  an  error  of 
judgment  in  agreeing,  under  any  circumstances,  to  take 
part  in  a  war  so  unnatural  and  impolitic,  yet  I  am  not 
without  a  hope,  however  faintly  entertained  that  hope 
may  be,  that,  in  future  ages,  those  of  us  who  continued 
to  the  last  to  exercise  moderation  and  forbearance,  and 
who  struggled  in  every  practicable  way  to  mollify  the 
unavoidable  acerbities  of  a  state  of  armed  collision,  may 
not  be  regarded  as  altogether  unpardonable. 

Let  us  now  take  a  calm  and  dispassionate  retrospect  of 
the  events  which  had  occurred  in  "Washington  City  be 
tween  the  day  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  inauguration  and  the  open 
ing  scenes  of  the  war.  President  Buchanan  had  done 
nothing  to  stay  the  march  of  rebellion,  or  to  show  that 
he  regarded  the  Federal  Union  as  even  capable  of  being 
successfully  defended.  In  his  recently  published  vindi 
cation  he  attempts  to  cast  the  discredit  of  his  inefficiency 
upon  the  two  houses  of  Congress.  I  have  read  with  at 
tention  his  elaborate  essay  prepared  for  this  purpose,  and 
I  have  not  neglected  the  reading  of  other  publications  on 
the  same  vexed  subject  which  have  made  their  appear 
ance  of  late.  I  have,  as  I  think,  tolerably  clear  views  as 
to  this  whole  affair,  with  which  I  shall  not,  on  the  present 
occasion,  disturb  the  public  mind.  In  reference  to  the  co- 
temporaneous  action  of  President  Lincoln,  I  confess  that 
I  have  a  very  different  opinion  from  that  which  I  enter 
tained  four  years  ago  and  very  freely  expressed.  I  am 
not  at  all  ashamed  to  acknowledge  that  I  regard  his 
whole  conduct,  after  he  had  become  the  recipient  of  the 
electoral  vote  which  entitled  him  to  claim  the  presidential 


324  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

authority,  as  singularly  marked  with,  moderation,  elevated 
patriotism,  and  true  practical  wisdom.  In  his  speech  at 
Indianapolis,  the  first  of  many  which  he  delivered  on  his 
way  to  Washington  City,  he  used  language  much  miscon 
strued  and  denounced  at  the  time ;  but  who  at  present 
would  seriously  censure  him  for  saying,  "  What,  then,  is 
coercion  ?  what  is  invasion  ?  Would  the  marching  of  an 
army  into  South  Carolina,  without  the  consent  of  her  peo 
ple  and  with  hostile  intent  toward  them,  be  invasion?  I 
certainly  think  that  it  would  be  invasion,  and  coercion 
also,  if  South  Carolinians  were  forced  to  submit.  But  if  the 
United  States  should  merely  hold  and  retake  her  own  forts  and 
other  property,  and  collect  the  duties  on  foreign  importations, 
or  even  withhold  the  maih  from  places  where  they  were  ha 
bitually  violated,  would  any  or  all  these  things  be  invasion  or 
coercion?"  Surely  every  man  now  whose  -reasoning  fac 
ulties  are  not  obscured  either  by  passion  or  prejudice 
would  be  willing  to  confess  that  in  this  specification  of 
acts  Mr.  Lincoln  has  only  defined  with  great  precision 
and  clearness,  but  in  kind  and  civil  language,  his  own 
sworn  duties  as  president  under  the  Constitution.  It  is 
now  pleasant,  and  even  soothing  to  our  sensibilities,  to 
read  a  few  of  the  characteristic  sentences  that  he  uttered 
at  Pittsburg,  where  he  said,  "  I  repeat  now,  there  is  no 
crisis  except  such  a  one  as  may  be  gotten  up  at  any  time 
by  turbulent  men,  aided  by  designing  politicians.  My 
advice  to  them,  under  the  circumstances,  is  to  keep  cool 
If  the  great  American  people  keep  their  temper  on  both 
sides  of  the  line,  the  trouble  will  come  to  an  end,  and  the 
question  which  now  distracts  the  country  be  settled,  just 
as  surely  as  all  other  difficulties  of  a  like  character  which 


MODERATION  OF  MB.  LINCOLN.  325 

have  originated  in  this  government  have  been  adjusted. 
Let  the  people  on  both  sides  keep  their  self-possession, 
and  just  as  other  clouds  have  cleared  away  in  due  time, 
so  will  this  great  nation  continue  to  prosper  as  hereto 
fore."  At  Philadelphia  he  concluded  a  modest  and  im 
pressive  harangue,  at  the  raising  of  the  United  States  flag 
over  Independence  Hall,  thus  touchingly :  "Now,  in  my 
view  of  the  present  aspect  of  affairs,  there  need  be  no 
bloodshed  or  war.  There  is  no  necessity  for  it.  I  am 
not  in  favor  of  such  a  course ;  and  I  may  say,  and  in  ad 
vance,  that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed,  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  government,  and  then  it  will  be  forced  to  act  in 
self-defense." 

Those  of  the  South  who  will  now  examine  with  a  calm 
attention  the  inaugural  address  of  President  Lincoln,  will 
not  be  much  inclined  to  subject  it  to  all  the  censures 
heretofore  bestowed  on  it.'  Posterity  will,  I  feel  assured, 
recognize  it  as  a  most  felicitous  specimen  of  clear,  un 
adorned,  and  idiomatic  English,  concise,  nervous,  and 
pointed,  and  breathing  throughout  a  spirit  of  pure  and 
disinterested  patriotism,  and  a  truly  Christian  moderation 
and  forbearance  toward  his  erring  and  excited  fellow- 
countrymen  of  the  slaveholding  region,  while  indicating 
the  most  painful  anticipations  of  those  coming  evils  from 
which  no  one  can  doubt  his  anxiety  to  shield  the  repub 
lic,  if  it  should  be  found  possible  to  do  so  consistently 
with  the  high  official  duties  which  he  was  about  to  as 
sume.  Almost  in  the  very  commencement  of  his  speech 
he  said,  "  Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people 
of  the  Southern  States  that,  by  the  accession  of  a  Kepub- 
lican  administration,  their  property,  and  their  peace  and 


326  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

personal  security,  will  be  endangered.  There  has  never 
been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  apprehension.  In 
deed,  the  most. ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has  all  the 
while .  existed,  and  been  open  to  their  inspection.  It  is 
found  in  nearly  all  the  published  speeches  of  him  who 
now  addresses  you.  I  do  but  quote  from  one  of  those 
speeches  when  I  declare  that  *  /  have  no  purpose,  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the 
states  where  it  exists."1  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to 
do  so,  and  I  have  no  intention  to  do  so.  Those  who  nom 
inated  and  elected  me  did  so  with  this  and  many  similar 
declarations,  and  had  never  recanted  them.  Moreover, 
they  placed  in  the  platform,  for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a 
law  to  themselves  and  to  me,  the  clear  and  emphatic  res 
olution  which  I  now  read :  '  Besolved,  That  the  mainte 
nance  inviolate  of  the  rights  of  the  states,  and  especially 
the  right  of  each  state  to  order  and  control  its  own  do 
mestic  institutions  according  to  its  judgment  exclusively, 
is  essential  to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfec 
tion  and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend ;  and 
we  denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of  the 
soil  of  any  state  or  Territory,  no  matter  under  what  pre 
text,  as  the  greatest  of  crimes.' 

"I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments,  and,  in  doing  so,  I 
only  press  upon  the  public  attention  tlje  most  conclusive 
evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that  the  proper 
ty,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are  to  be  in  anywise 
endangered  by  the  now  incoming  administration.  I  add, 
too,  that  all  the  protection  which,  consistently  with  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws,  can  be  given,  will  be  cheer 
fully  given  to  all  the  states,  when  lawfully  demanded, 


LINCOLN   A   MAINTAINEK   OF  THE   LAWS.  327 

for  whatever  cause,  as  cheerfully  to  one  section  as  to 
another." 

So  much  for  non-interference  with  slavery  in  the  states. 
Let  us  now  see  what  he  says  in  the  inaugural  touching 
fugitives  from  service.  On  this  head  he  is  indeed  most 
emphatic.  After  citing  the  clause  of  the  Federal  Consti 
tution  relating  to  this  matter,  he  comes  squarely  up  and 
says,  "It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was 
intended  by  those  who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of  what 
we  call  fugitive  slaves,  and  the  intention  of  the  lawgiver  is 
the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear  their  support 
to  the  whole  Constitution — to  this  as  well  as  any  other. 
To  the  proposition,  then,  that  slaves,  whose  cases  come 
within  the  terms  of  this  clause,  '  shall  be  delivered  up,' 
their  oaths  are  unanimous.  Now,  if  they  would  make 
the  effort  in  good  temper,  could  they  not,  with  a  nearly 
equal  unanimity,  frame  and  pass  a  law  by  means  of  which 
to  keep  good  that  unanimous  oath?"  After  kindly  and 
respectfully  suggesting  some  amendment  in  the  existing 
law  on  this  subject,  so  as  to  make  its  operation  less  rig 
orous,  and  thus  to  secure  its  more  effective  operation,  he 
says: 

"  I  take  the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reserva 
tions,  and  with  no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitution 
or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules ;  and,  while  I  do  not 
choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of  Congress  as  prop 
er  to  be  enforced,!  do  suggest  that  it  will  be  much  safer 
for  all,  both  in  official  and  private  stations,  to  conform  to 
and  abide  by  all  those  acts  which  stand  unrepealed,  than 
to  violate  any  of  them,  trusting  to  final  impunity  in  having 
them  held  to  be  unconstitutional" 


328  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

After  discussing  in  a  very  striking  manner  the  mooted 
question  of  secession,  and  declaring,  in  firm  but  courteous 
language,  his  determination  to  maintain  the  constitutional 
powers  of  the  government  against  all  attempts  to  subvert 
them,  he  adds:  "I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a 
menace,  but  only  as  a  declared  purpose  of  the  Union  that 
it  will  constitutionally  defend  and  maintain  itself.  In 
doing  this,  there  need  be  no  bloodshed  or  violence,  and 
there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  is  forced  upon  the  national 
authority." 

Again  returning  to.  the  discussion  of  the  right  of  a  sin 
gle  state,  or  less  than  a  constitutional  majority,  to  disrupt 
the  government  or  withdraw  from  the  compact  of  union, 
and  declaring  his  own  preference  for  the  conventional 
mode  of  amending  the  Constitution,  he  takes  particular 
pains  to  state  his  assent  to  the  constitutional  amendment 
which  had  just  passed  Congress,  in  these  words :  "I  un 
derstand  that  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
(which  amendment,  however,  I  have  not  seen)  has  passed 
Congress,  to  the  effect  that  the  Federal  government  shall 
never  interfere  with  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  states, 
including  that  of  persons  held  to  service.  To  avoid  mis 
construction  of  what  I  have  said,  I  depart  from  my  pur 
pose  not  to  speak  of  particular  amendments,  so  far  as  to 
say  that,  holding  such  a  provision  to  be  now  implied  con 
stitutional  law,  I  have  no  objection  to  making  it  express  and 
irrevocable" 

The  address  closes  in  the  following  pathetic  and  sol 
emn  manner : 

"My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well 
uppn  this  whole  subject;  nothing  valuable  can  be  lost 
by  taking  time. 


LINCOLN  THE   APOSTLE   OF   PEACE.  329 

"If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry  any  of  you  in  hot 
haste  to  a  step  which  you  would  never  take  deliberately, 
that  object  will  be  frustrated  by  taking  time,  but  no  good 
object  can  be  frustrated  by  it. 

"Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied  still  have  the  old 
Constitution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive  point,  the 
laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it,  while  the  new  ad 
ministration  will  have  no  immediate  power,  if  it  would, 
to  change  either. 

"  If  it  were  admitted  that  you  who  are  dissatisfied  hold 
the  right  side  in  the  dispute,  there  is  still  no  single  reason 
for  precipitate  action.  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christian 
ity,  and  a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet  for 
saken  this  favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in 
the  best  .way,  all  our  present  difficulties. 

"In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen, 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 
The  government  will  not  assail  you. 

"You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves 
the  aggressors.  You  can  have  no  oath  registered  in  heav 
en  to  destroy  the  government,  while  I  shall  have  the 
most  solemn  one  to  '  preserve,  protect,  and  defend'  it. 

"  I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends. 
We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have 
strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection. 

"  The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every 
battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and 
hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the 
chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely  they 
will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 

How  profoundly  gratified  will  be  all  men  in  future 


330  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

times,  who  may  be  capable  of  appreciating  truth  and  rea 
son,  when  they  learn  that  this  powerful  appeal  to  the 
hearts  and  understandings  of  Southern  men  was  bached 
and  fortified,  yea,  even  anticipated,  by  the  following  noble 
utterances  of  Alexander  H.  Stephens. 

"The  first  question  that  presents  itself  is,  Shall  the 
people  of  the  South  secede  from  the  Union  in  conse 
quence  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  presidency 
of  the  United  States  ?  My  countrymen,  I' tell  you  frank 
ly,  candidly,  and  earnestly,  that  I  do  not  think  that  they 
ought.  In  my  judgment,  the  election  of  no  man,  consti 
tutionally  chosen  to  that  high  office,  is  sufficient  cause  for 
any  state  to  separate  from  the  Union ;  it  ought  to  stand 
by  and  aid  still  in  maintaining  the  Constitution  of  the 
country.  To  make  a  point  of  resistance  to  the  govern 
ment,  to  withdraw  from  it  because  a  man  has  been  con 
stitutionally  elected,  puts  us  in  the  wrong.  We  are 
pledged  to  maintain  the  Constitution  ;  many  of  us  have 
sworn  to  support  it.  "Can  we,  therefore,  for  the  mere 
election  of  a  man  to  the  presidency,  and  that,  too,  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  prescribed  forms  of  the  Constitution, 
make  a  point  of  resistance  to  the  government,  and,  with 
out  becoming  the  breakers  of  that  sacred  instrument  our 
selves,  withdraw  ourselves  from  it?  Would  we  not  be 
in  the  wrong?  Whatever  fate  is  to  befall  this  country, 
let  it  never  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  people  of  the 
South,  and  especially  of  the  people  of  Georgia,  that  we 
were  untrue  to  our  national  engagements.  Let  the  fault 
and  the  wrong  rest  upon  others.  If  all  our  hopes  are 
to  be  blasted,  if  the  republic  is  to  go  down,  let  us  be 
found  to  the  last  moment  standing  on  the  deck,  with  the 


GOOD  AND  PATRIOTIC  MEN  EVERY  WHERE  AGREE.    331 

/'• 

Constitution  of  the  United  States  waving  over  our  heads. 
(Applause.)  Let  the  fanatics  of  the  North  break  the  Con 
stitution,  if  such  is  their  fell  purpose  ;  let  the  responsibil 
ity  be  upon  them.  I  shall  speak  presently  more  of  their 
acts.  But  let  not  the  South,  let  us  not  be  the  ones  to 
commit  the  aggression.  We  went  into  the  election  with 
this  people ;  the  result  was  different  from  what  we  wish 
ed,  but  the  election  has  been  constitutionally  held.  Were 
we  to  make  a  point  of  resistance  to  the  government,  and 
go  out  of  the  Union  on  that  account,  the  record  would  be 
made  up  hereafter  against  us. 

"  But,  it  is  said,  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  and  principles  are 
against  the  Constitution,  and  that,  if  he  carries  them  out, 
it  will  be  destructive  of  our  rights.  Let  us  not  anticipate 
a  threatened  evil.  If  he  violates  the  Constitution,  then 
will  come  our  time  to  act.  Do  not  let  us  break  it,  be 
cause,  forsooth,  lie  may.  If  he  does,  that  is  the  time  for 
us  to  strike.  (Applause.)  I  think  it  would  be  injudicious 
and  unwise  to  do  this  sooner.  I  do  not  anticipate  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  will  do  any  thing  to  jeopardize  our  safety  or 
security,  whatever  may  be  his  spirit  "to  do  it;  for  he  is 
bound  by  the  constitutional  checks  which  are  thrown 
around  him,  which  at  this  time  render  him  powerless  to 
do  any  great  mischief.  This  shows  the  wisdom  of  our 
system.  The  President  of  the  United  States  is  no  em 
peror,  no  dictator ;  he  is  clothed  with  no  absolute  power. 
He  can  do  nothing  unless  he  is  backed  by  power  in  Con 
gress.  The  House  of  Eepresentatives  is  largely  in  the 
majority  against  him.  In  the  Senate  he  will  also  be  pow 
erless  :  there  will  be  a  majority  of  four  against  him— 
this,  after  the  loss  of  Bigler,  Fitch,  and  others,  by  the 


332  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

unfortunate  dissensions  of  the  Democratic  party  in  their 
states.  Mr.  Lincoln  can  not  appoint  an  officer  without 
the  consent  of  the  Senate;  he  can  not  form  a  cabinet 
without  the  same  consent.  He  will  be  in  the  condition 
of  Greorge  III.  (the  embodiment  of  Toryism),  who  had  to 
ask  the  Whigs  to  appoint  his  ministers,  and  was  compel 
led  to  receive  a  cabinet  utterly  opposed  to  his  views; 
and  so  Mr.  Lincoln  will  be  compelled  to  ask  of  the  Sen 
ate  to  choose  for  him  a  cabinet,  if  the  Democracy  of  that 
body  choose  to  put  him  on  such  terms.  He  will  be  com 
pelled  to  do  this,  or  let  the  government  stop,  if  the  Na 
tional  Democratic  men — for  that  is  their  name  at  the 
North — the  conservative  men  in  the  Senate,  should  so 
determine.  Then  how  can  Mr.  Lincoln  obtain  a  cabinet 
which  would  aid  him,  or  allow  him,  to  violate  the  Consti 
tution  ? 

"  Why,  then,  I  say,  should  we  disrupt  the  bonds  of  this 
Union,  when  his  hands  are  tied — when  he  can  do  nothing 
against  us  ? 

"I  believe  in  the  power  of  the  people  to  govern  them 
selves,  when  wisdom  prevails  and  passion  is  silent.  Look 
at  what  has  already  been  done  by  them  for  their  advance 
ment  in  all  that  ennobles  man.  There  is  nothing  like  it 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Look  abroad  from  one  ex 
tent  of  the  country  to  the  other ;  contemplate  our  great 
ness  ;  we  are  now  among  the  first  nations  of  the  earth. 
Shall  it,  then,  be  said  that  our  institutions,  founded  upon 
principles  of  self-government,  are  a  failure  ? 

"  Thus  far  it  is  a  noble  example,  worthy  of  imitation. 
The  gentleman  (Mr.  Cobb),  the  other  night,  said  it  had 
proven  a  failure.  A  failure  in  what  ?  In  growth  ?  Look 


OPENING  OF  THE   WAR.  333 

at  our  expanse  in  national  power !  Look  at  our  popula 
tion  and  increase  in  all  that  makes  a  people' great!  A 
failure?  Why,  we  are  the  admiration  of  the  civilized 
world,,  and  present  the  brightest  hopes  of  mankind. 

"Some  of  our  public  men  have  failed  in  their  aspira 
tions,  that  is  true ;  and  from  that  comes  a  great  part  of 
our  troubles.  (Prolonged  applause.) 

"  No,  there  is  no  failure  of  this  government  yet.  We 
have  made  great  advancement  under  the  Constitution, 
and  I  can  not  but  hope  that  we  shall  advance  still  high 
er.  Let  us  be  true  to  our  cause." 

Occurrences  were  now  soon  to  take  place  which  all 
true-hearted  American  citizens  must  forever  deplore,  and 
which  the  friends  and  supporters  of  republican  freedom 
can  never  .cease  most  profoundly  to  lament.  The  open 
ing  scene  of  the  war  has  imparted  to  Charleston,  the  boast 
ed  commercial  emporium  of  South  Carolina,  a  deathless 
claim  to  the  mournful  yet  respectful  sympathy  of  all  who 
admire  manliness,  and  valor,  and  skill  in  arms,  and  el 
evated  patriotism,  and  wheresoever  the  honored  names 
of  Anderson  and  Beauregard,  and  of  those  who  were  as 
sociated  with  either  of  these  renowned  chieftains  in  the 
memorable  affair  of  the  siege  and  capture  of  Fort  Sum- 
ter  shall  be  printed  or  enunciated  in  any  of  the  spoken 
languages  of  earth.  It  is  not  for  me  to  record  what  was 
done  and  suffered  on  either  side  in  the  fratricidal  contest 
which  sectional  strife  had  at  last  wrought  up  to  the  shed 
ding  of  American  blood  upon  American  soil,  and  by 
American  hands.  I  shall  cheerfully  leave  to  others,  to 
whom  this  grim  task  may  prove  grateful,  an  account  of 
the  fighting  of  sanguinary  and  wasteful  battles  that  never 


334  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

should  have  been  fought,  and  the  description  of  victories 
won  or  of  defeats  endured,  the  memory  of  which  will  ever 
be,  in  my  judgment,  a  far  fitter  subject  for  painful  remem 
brance  and  poignant  lamentation,  than  for  agreeable  rem 
iniscence  and  patriotic  rejoicing.  The  rival  merits  of 
illustrious  military  commanders  on  either  side  whose  un 
happy  fate  it  was  to  be  drawn  into  sanguinary  conflict — 
of  Grant  and  of  Lee,  of  Stonewall  Jackson  and  Lyon,  of 
Sherman  and  Joe  Johnston,  of  Price  and  Thomas,  of  Sher 
idan  and  Ewell,  and  a  host  of  bright  names  besides  too 
numerous  for  recital,  it  is  not  probable  that  I  shall  ever 
undertake  either  to  compare  or  portray.  Should  it  hap 
pen  hereafter  that  such  personages  as  I  have  mentioned 
shall  be  associated  upon  fields  of  glory  opened  to  them 
by  our  country's  presiding  genius  upon  a  foreign  soil, 
with  commingled  energies  and  blended  sympathies,  to 
maintain  the  venerated  principles  of  our  fathers;  should  it 
become  needful  that  all  the  spotless  chivalry  of  our  whole 
vast  country  —  of  the  North,  the  South,  the  East,  and 
the  West — should  go  forth  to  vindicate  the  honor  of  re 
publican  institutions  in  this  hemisphere  against  the  usurp 
ing  violence  of  imperial  despotism,  and  no  fitter  pen  than 
mine  can  be  found  to  record  exploits  which  will  at  the 
same  time  redound  to  our  own  country's  honor,  and  lend 
encouragement  and  inspiration  to  the  oppressed  strugglers 
for  freedom  contending  in  unequal  contest  against  the  ef 
forts  of  earth's  tyrants  to  enslave  them,  then  shall  I  be 
prepared  to  render  such  aid  as  I  can  for  the  recounting 
of  achievements,  the  fame  of  which  will  be  as  enduring 
as  the  mountains  of  our  natal  land,  and  as  splendid  as 
the  unclouded  rays  of  Heaven's  grand  luminary  shining 
down  on  us  from  the  central  point  of  the  firmament. 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR — LEROY  P.  WALKER.    335 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Beginning  of  the  War. — Its  gross  Impolicy. — Mr.  Davis  and  his  official 
Associates  did  not  comprehend  its  true  Dimensions. — Mr.  Davis's  sev 
eral  exultant  Speeches  after  having  been  made  President. — Striking 
Declaration  made  by  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  War,  Leroy  Pope 
Walker,  at  Montgomery,  Alabama.  —  Mr.  Lincoln's  View  of  the  phys 
ical  Impracticability  of  Secession. — Philosophic  Views  of  the  Effects  of 
War  in  general,  and  of  Civil  War  in  particular. — View  of  the  existing 
Condition  of  Things  as  the  Eesult  of  the  late  War. — Responsible  Atti 
tude  of  President  Johnson,  and  Duty  of  all  good  Citizens  to  sustain 
him. — Short  Explanation  of  Author's  own  Attitude  in  the  beginning 
of  the  War. — The  Confederate  Provisional  Congress. — Its  extraordi 
nary  Harmony  and  Unanimity,  and  the  Causes  thereof. — View  of  the 
permanent  Confederate  Congress. — Rapid  Review  of  Mr,  Davis's  Con 
duct  as  Executive  Chief. — Peace  Efforts  in  the  Confederate  Congress. 
— Their  signal  Failure,  and  the  Causes  thereof. — Informal  Efforts  of 
Author,  in  Connection  with  many  influential  Persons  of  the  South,  to 
make  Peace  in  Spite  of  Mr.  Davis,  and,  if  need  be,  by  a  Counter-revo 
lution. — Failure  of  those  Efforts,  and  probable  Causes  therefor. — Au 
thor  asks  Passport  across  the  Ocean,  which  is  granted 'him. — Close  of 
the  War,  and  Remarks  thereupon. 

WAR  was  now  initiated  by  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sum- 
ter,  under  orders  suddenly  received  from  Mr.  Davis's 
Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Leroy  Pope  Walker,  of  Hunts- 
ville,  Alabama,  whose  clear  and  sonorous  tones  had  been 
heard,  only  a  month  or  two  before,  in  the  goodly  city 
of  Nashville  (up  to  that  time  still  a  Union-loving  city), 
expounding  the  opening  glories  of  secession.  As  some 
sprightly  and  vivacious  urchin,  who  jocosely  casts  his 
lighted  cracker  at  the  heels  of  the  way-side  passenger, 


336  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

whom  he  expects  to  see  startled  and  affrighted  with  the 
noise  of  the  unlooked-for  explosion,  or,  to  speak  a  little 
more  classically,  as  the  fabled  son  of  Phoebus,  who  is  re 
ported  as  mounting  the  blazing  chariot  of  the  sun,  auda 
ciously  seizing  the  reins,  and  driving  the  celestial  steeds 
amain  with  furious  celerity  along  the  ethereal  pathways, 
until  the  whole  heavens  were  set  on  fire,  so  Mr.  Davis' s 
enterprising  war  secretary  embraced  with  eagerness  the 
opportunity  which  his  august  chief  had  now  so  unwisely 
afforded  to  him  of  plunging  his  native  land,  most  cause 
lessly  and  madly,  into  a  war  more  wasting  and  blood}^ 
than  any  which  this  western  hemisphere  had  heretofore 
experienced.  Let  us  pause  for  a  moment,  and  consider 
the  respective  strength  of  the  parties  now  suddenly  "pre 
cipitated"  into  conflict.  The  Federal  government  in 
Washington  City  represented  at  the  time  the  power  and 
resources  of  nearly  twenty-five  millions  of  people.  For 
the  cotton  states  could  alone  at  that  moment  be  confi 
dently  looked  to  for  co-operative  aid;  and,  making  al 
lowance  for  the  strength  of  the  Union  element  existing 
in  all  the  states  of  the  South  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  this  unhappy  contest,  and  for  the  African  element 
also,  which  all  discerning  men  foresaw  from  the  com 
mencement,  should  the  war  endure  long,  would  be  infal 
libly  wielded  against  the  Southern  claim  to  separate  in 
dependence,  no  one  can  suppose  that  as  many  as  five  mil 
lions  of  people  could  at  any  time  be  found,  during  the 
four  years  of  terrible  suffering  through  which  it  has  been 
the  fate  of  the  unhappy  and  deluded  South  to  pass  (in 
cluding  men,  women,  and  children),  whose  hearts  were 
warmly  enlisted  in  the  attempt  now  making  to  subvert 


INEQUALITY   OF  THE  STRUGGLE.  337 

the  government  of  our  fathers.  Besides,  the  strong- 
willed  and  resolute  men  who  had  been  left  behind  in 
Washington  City  by  the  rash  and  improvident  Southern 
senators  and  representatives,  henceforward  to  wield  the 
thunders  of  state,  without  serious  let  or  embarrassment 
from  any  quarter,  against  those  who  had  resolved  to  or 
ganize  wild,  flaming  rebellion  in  the  South,  were  pos 
sessed  of  a  considerable  body  of  regular  soldiers,  a  large 
navy,  and  abundant  resources  of  every  kind  for  the  pros 
ecution  of  warlike  enterprises;  while  all  the  states  of  the 
Old  World  were  open  to  them,  and  ready  to  send  to  them 
also  such  supplies  as  might  be  needed,  and  to  transmit 
to  them,  if  these  should  be  desired,  millions  of  willing 
soldiers,  who  only  needed  that  a  friendly  invitation 
should  be  extended  to  them  to  fly  across  the  deep,  in  or 
der  to  aid  in  defending  the  venerated  national  emblem 
of  our  country  against  all  who  should  dare  to  menace  it 
with  dishonor.  Surely  no  historian  has  ever  heretofore 
recited  the  incidents  of  a  war  in  which  between  the  con 
flicting  parties  there  was  greater  disparity  of  strength. 
But  Mr.  Davis  and  his  official  associates  had  no  correct 
conception  of  the  true  character  and  dimensions  of  the 
war  into  which  they  had  so  hastily  plunged,  as  was  aft 
erward  frankly  confessed  in  many  a  lugubrious  harangue, 
and  in  more  than  one  solemn  official  document.  They 
did  not  believe  at  first  that  the  conflict  would  endure  for 
a  twelve-month,  and  were  even  weak  enough  to  calculate 
most  confidently  upon  strong  Northern  aid,  which  it  is 
now  well  known  there  never  was  the  least  probability 
of  their  receiving ;  albeit  ex-President  Pierce  and  sev 
eral  others,  whose  letters  to  Mr.  Davis  have  recently  seen 

P 


338  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

the  light,  had  plied  this  confiding  personage  with  secret 
promises  of  support,  upon  which  he  built  in  part  his 
hopes  of  one  day  wielding  an  imperial  sceptre.  As  to 
the  interposition  of  foreign  powers  in  behalf  of  the  now 
warring  states  of  the  South,  though  many  deceitful  assur 
ances  were  received  from  abroad  at  different  periods  of 
the  contest,  no  man  of  sound  intellect  any  where  now 
supposes  that  either  the  French  or  English  governments 
ever  seriously  thought  of  embroiling  itself  in  a  transat 
lantic  civic  feud,  the  formal  enlistment  in  which  would, 
in  all  probability,  bring  upon  itself  swift  and  assured  de 
struction.  Mr.  Davis  evidently  thought  far  otherwise 
when  he  said  at  Jackson,  Mississippi,  just  before  leaving 
his  own  home  for  the  city  of  Montgomery,  "  England 
would  not  allow  our  great  staple  to  be  dammed  up  with 
in  our  present  limits ;  the  starving  thousands  in  their 
midst  would  not  allow  it.  We  have  nothing  to  appre 
hend  from  blockade.  But,  if  they  attempt  invasion  by 
land,  we  must  take  the  war  out  of  our  territory.  If  war 
must  come,  it  must  be  upon  Northern,  and  not  upon 
Southern  soil."  Continuing  to  talk  in  this  menacing 
strain  along  the  road  to  Montgomery,  when  he  reached 
Stevenson,  an  important  railroad  point,  he  said:  "Your 
border  states  will  gladly  come  into  the  Southern  confed 
eracy  within  sixty  days,  as  we  ivitt  be  their  only  friends. 
England  will  recognize  us,  and  a  glorious  future  is  be 
fore  us.  The  grass  will  grow  in  the  Northern  cities, 
where  the  pavements  have  been  worn  off  by  the  tread  of 
commerce.  We  will  carry  war  where  it  is  easy  to  ad 
vance — where  food  for  the  sword  and  torch  await  our 
armies  in  the  densely-populated  cities ;  and  though  they 


ME.  DAVIS  AS  THE  MODERN  CAMBYSES.  339 

(the  enemy)  may  come  and  spoil  our  crops,  we  can  raise 
them  as  before,  while  they  can  not  rear  the  cities  which 
took  years  of  industry  and  millions  of  money  to  build." 
It  was  evidently,  in  part,  under  the  inspiration  of  such 
speeches  as  these  from  his  executive  chief,  that  the  war 
secretary,  Mr.  Walker,  on  the  night  after  the  storming  of 
Fort  Sumter,  announced  that  "  the  Confederate  flag  would 
soon  be  seen  flying  from  the  top  of  the  Capitol  in  Wash 
ington." 

Far  more  to  the  point  were  the  sober,  practical  words 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  he  had  said,  in  his  inaugural, 

"Physically  speaking,  we  can  not  separate ;  we  can  not 
remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build 
an  impassable  wall  between  them.  A  husband  and  wife 
may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the  presence  and  beyond 
the  reach  of  each  other,  but  the  different  parts  of  our 
country  can  not  do  this.  They  can  not  but  remain  face 
to  face ;  and  intercourse,  either  amiable  or  hostile,  must 
continue  between  them.  Is  it  possible,  then,  to  make  that 
intercourse  more  advantageous  or  more  satisfactory  after 
separation  than  before  ?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier 
than  friends  can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more 
faithfully  enforced  between  aliens  than  laws  can  among 
friends  ?  Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  can  not  fight  al 
ways;  and  when,  after  much  loss  on  both  sides,  and  no 
gain  on  either,  you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  questions 
as  to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again  upon  you." 

It  must  ever  appear  to  men  at  all  given  to  philosophic 
meditation  upon  the  concerns  of  government,  and  who 
have  made  themselves  in  the  least  degree  familiar  with 
great  historic  examples,  exceedingly  surprising  that  the 


340  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

secession  leaders  at  this  perilous  crisis  (all  of  whom  pro 
fessed  a  profound  regard  alike  for  the  corporate  rights  of 
the  states  as  for  general  popular  freedom)  should  have 
failed  to  discover  the  extreme  dangers  to  both  of  these 
which  a  continued  state  of  war  must  engender.  All  pro 
fessed  writers  on  government,  from  Aristotle  down  to 
Calhoun,  have  pointed  out  these  dangers,  and  some  of 
them  have  expatiated  with  great  force  upon  the  inevita 
ble  tendency  of  belligerent  measures  to  centralize  all  civil 
power  in  a  single  hand.  They  have  taught  us  that  if  the 
state  of  war  be  continued  too  long,  nothing  but  the  great 
est  circumspection  on  the  part  of  those  interested  in  pre 
serving  freedom  can  prevent  the  building  up  of  an  irre 
sponsible  despotism.  And  this  tendency  to  centralization 
has,  confessedly,  always  been  more  observable  in  such 
wars  as  are  waged  by  one  portion  of  the  citizens  of  a 
free  country  against  citizens  of  kindred  blood,  of  the 
same  country  and  lineage,  upon  the  natal  soil  common 
to  them  both.  It  would  be  easy  to  specify  the  effi 
cient  causes  of  this,  and  quite  as  easy  to  illustrate  and 
support  the  stated  proposition  by  numerous  instances  in 
point.  It  is  Mr.  Webster,  I  think,  who,  in  some  one  of 
his  majestic  orations,  likens  the  action  of  the  government 
al  machine,  in  times  of  civil  commotion,  to  the  chariot- 
wheels  of  antiquitjr,  which  are  described  as  taking  fire 
from  the  celerity  of  their  own  motion.  Two  such  ma 
chines,  in  close  proximity,  igniting  from  the  same  cause, 
must  each  serve,  by  a  natural  reciprocation  of  power,  to 
increase  the  general  combustion.  It  would  have  been 
scarcely  possible  to  preserve  a  well-balanced  federative 
system  either  in  the  North  or  in  the  South,  while  such  a 


SECESSION   NECESSARILY   FATAL   TO   FREEDOM.    341 

war  as  that  from  which  we  have  just  so  happily  escaped, 
was  in  fierce  and  ever- vary  ing  progress.  Had  peaceful 
secession  even  turned  out  to  be  a  practicable  experiment, 
the  danger  of  constantly-recurring  border  wars  would 
have  demanded  the  location  of  considerable  bodies  of  de 
fensive  soldiery  along  the  line  of  territorial  separation 
on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other  of  that  line,  in  order  to 
guard  against  hostile  incursions,  ever  possible  to  occur. 
These  military  bands  would  have  soon  grown  into  stand 
ing  armies  of  great  and  constantly  accumulating  strength, 
"until  each  of  them  would,  as  so  often  has  been  the  case 
heretofore,  have  given  to  the  country  which  should  have 
thus  fallen  under  its  control  an  imperial  master,  or  would, 
at  least,  have  decreed  the  establishment  of  a  government 
far  stronger  in  its  frame  than  that  of  the  republican  form 
has  ever  been  heretofore  adjudged  to  be.  But  a  separa 
tion  effected  by  the  sword  must  have  been  fraught  with 
yet  greater  peril.  A  long  and  arduous  struggle  be 
tween  two  segments  of  the  same  republic,  marked  by 
the  copious  shedding  of  the  blood  of  valued  citizens  on 
either  side,  would  necessarily  have  engendered  rancors 
exceedingly  difficult  to  be  allayed,  even  after  hostilities 
should  have  ceased  to  be  prosecuted.  These  rancors, 
during  the  season  of  hostilities,  would  have  been  con 
stantly  multiplying  and  increasing  in  intensity.  The  or 
dinary  expedients  of  war  would  have  become,  in  the  esti 
mation  of  the  parties  struggling  for  superiority,  far  too 
gentle  and  ineffective  for  the  fierce  and  hellish  purposes 
of  a  wrathful  and  all-desolating  vengeance.  The  infer 
nal  furies  themselves  would  be  called  in  by  mutual  and 
trumpet-toned  entreaties,  to  swell  the  thrice  tragic  scene 


342  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

of  general  social  ruin.  Sicilian  vespers,  or  Feasts  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  would  have  ceased  to  awaken  their  accus 
tomed  horror,  when  confronting  such  scenes  as  those  to 
which  our  own  loved  country  was,  only  a  month  or  two 
since,  in  danger  of  falling  a  prey.  A  state  of  things  so 
appalling  as  that  described  would,  of  necessity,  have  de 
manded  that  large  and  latitudinous  powers  should  be 
vested  in  the  executive  department  of  the  government, 
wheresoever  situated,  in  order  to  regulate  and  hold  in 
some  little  restraint,  if  possible,  all  those  potent  elements 
of  mischief.  In  order  to  prevent  universal  anarch}^,  uni 
versal  butchery,  and  wide-sweeping  crimes  of  every  sort, 
the  organization  of  a  despotism  would  have  become  a 
fatal  necessity.  Such  vast  powers,  once  trusted  in  the 
hands  of  any  man  less  virtuous  than  "Washington  himself, 
it  would  be  absurd  to  expect  would  be  voluntarily  sur 
rendered,  and  to  tear  them  from  so  potential  a  depository 
by  force  might  perchance  be  found  impossible. 

Is  any  man  incredulous  to  these  suggestions?  Be 
hold  !  are  we  not  even  now  treading  upon  the  cinders  of 
a  volcanic  eruption,  which  is  only  just  at  this  moment 
ceasing  to  emit  smoke  ?  Have  we  not  seen,  in  the  very 
war  which  has  but  the  other  day  been  brought  to  a  close, 
that  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  most  humane,  moderate,  and  clem 
ent  of  men,  was  compelled,  by  circumstances  which  admit 
ted  of  no  discretion,  to  bring  into  exercise  powers  which 
lie  himself  frankly  and  magnanimously  acknowledged 
not  to  have  been  derived  from  the  Constitution  under 
which  he  had  been  called  to  his  high  station?  Do  we 
not  now  see  his  firm-nerved,  sagacious,  and  energetic  suc 
cessor,  a  man  as  remarkable  in  his  former  life  as  any 


HORRORS   OF   WAR.  343 

American  statesman,  either  dead  or  living,  for  his  strict 
and  scrupulous  regard  for  the  great  fundamental  princi 
ples  of  our  system  of  freedom,  battling  manfully  and  per- 
severingly  with  a  vast  "sea  of  troubles,"  while,  on  the 
right  hand  and  on  the  left,  blind  and  infuriated  zealots, 
extremists,  and  impracticables  of  every  noxious  creed 
under  heaven  are,  with  emulous  confusion,  and  with  ever- 
toiling  malignity,  striving  to  paralyze  the  arm  which  is 
being  stretched  forth  over  the  whole  land — over  the 
North,  the  South,  the  East,  and  the  West,  for  the  purpose 
of  effecting  a  great  and  universal  national  deliverance  ? 
Are  not  a  few  men  far  to  the  South  presenting  even  yet 
an  unamiable  and  factious  opposition  to  the  reasonable 
requisitions  which  their  only  protector  on  earth  has  made 
upon  them  ?  And  are  there  not  others  in  the  North  de 
nouncing  that  same  personage  for  not  carrying  into  effect 
all  their  hell-born  schemes  of  vengeance  and  spoliation  ? 
And  can  any  one  doubt  that  all  these  are  the  natural 
and  inevitable  products  of  such  a  war  as  that  which  was 
brought  to  a  close  last  spring  ? 

I  am  aware  that  some  might  be  inclined  to  ask  why, 
entertaining  such  views  as  have  been  just  expressed,  the 
writer  of  these  pages  consented,  four  years  ago,  to  occupy 
a  seat  in  the  Confederate  Congress?  I  wish  it  were  in  my 
power  to  answer  this  most  natural  interrogatory  in  a 
manner  entirely  satisfactory  even  to  my  own  judgment 
and  sensibilities.  It  were  but  to  display  a  vain  and  silly 
egotism,  to  narrate  all  the  influences  to  which  my  action 
as  a  public  man  was  subjected  in  the  early  part  of  this 
most  deplorable  contest.  I  shall  be  content,  for  the  pres 
ent,  to  state  that  the  motives  which  operated  upon  me 


344  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

were  of  a  nature  most  peculiar  and  pressing,  a  good  deal 
out  of  the  ordinary  routine  of  civic  duty,  anomalous  and 
eccentrical,  if  any  one  shall  be  pleased  so  to  denominate 
them;  and  I  should  greatly  prefer  to  be  burdened  with 
the  largest  amount  of  undeserved  reproach  to  attempting 
the  difficult  and  perhaps  impossible  task  of  vindicating 
my  own  political  consistency,  or  proving  to  the  excited 
and  prejudiced  minds  of  a  generation  which  is  fast  pass 
ing  away,  how,  by  pursuing  the  very  course  which,  after 
much  and  painful  hesitation,  and  under  the  persuasions 
of  men  of  far  higher  intellect  than  my  own,  I  finally  con 
sented  to  tread,  I  secured  to  myself  the  only  chance,  in 
the  event  of  certain  exigencies  which  I  then  foresaw 
most  plainly  were  more  than  likely  to  arise,  of  aiding, 
to  some  moderate  extent  at  least,  in  warding  off  a  portion 
of  the  evils  the  whole  integral  mass  of  which  it  had  al 
ready,  in  the  rapid  and  tumultuous  rush  of  revolutionary 
events,  become  impossible  to  avert,  and  of  participating, 
according  to  the  measure  of  my  ability,  also,  in  the  pre 
vention  of  results  which,  even  at  that  period,  I  could  not 
but  regard  as  most  alarmingly  foreshadowed. 

Of  the  action  of  the  Confederate  provisional  Congress 
I  have  but  little  to  say.  I  have  heard  that  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  ability  in  the  body,  and  that  there  was  much 
harmony,  also,  in  its  proceedings.  The  revolutionary 
machine,  I  should  conjecture,  had  already  been  given 
most  decidedly  the  centralizing  tendency  which  has  been 
already  described,  as  it  has  been  often  stated  in  my  hear 
ing,  by  men  who  were  bound  to  know  all  about  the  mat 
ter,  that  Mr.  Davis  vetoed  more  bills  during  the  short 
provisional  regime  than  all  the  presidents  of  the  United 


CONFEDERATE  GOVERNMENT.         345 

States  put  together,  from  Washington  to  Lincoln  inclu 
sive,  and  that  no  attempt  to  pass  a  single  bill  over  his 
head  was  ever  made. 

In  reference  to  the  proceedings  of 'the  Confederate  gov 
ernment,  after  my  unhappy  and  tempestuous  connection 
with  it  was  formed,  I  should  have  very  much  to  say  un 
der  different  circumstances  than  those  which  now  exist, 
all  of  which  may  be  said  hereafter,  if  it  be  apparent  that 
the  public  mind  is  in  a  condition  to  profit  by  the  painful 
revelations  which  it  will  be  in  my  power  to  make.  But 
President  Davis  and  his  cabinet  are  either  in  exile  or  in 
imprisonment;  his  multitudinous  official  servitors  have 
retired  to  private  life,  or  are  gloomy  wanderers  in  foreign 
lands.  Those  who,  in  despite  of  what  a  few  independent 
and  high-spirited  men  could  do  to  prevent  the  passage  of 
certain  baleful  measures,  succeeded  in  enacting  laws  for 
the  suspension  of  the  great  writ  of  liberty;  for  the  confis 
cation,  of  the  estates  of  all  who  could  not  conscientiously 
range  themselves  in  opposition  to  the  flag  of  their  fa 
thers  ;  for  the  forcible  conscription  of  all  male  citizens  ca 
pable  of  bearing  arms,  whether  in  friendly  or  hostile  re 
lations  to  the  Confederate  cause ;  for  the  forcible  impress 
ment  of  private  property,  wheresoever  situated,  at  the  dis 
cretion  of  men  endowed  temporarily  with  military  au 
thority  ;  for  the  declaration  and  enforcement  of  martial 
law,  and  a  number  of  acts  besides  of  almost  equal  enor 
mity  ;  those  who  sustained  Mr.  Davis  in  the  appoint 
ment  of  inefficient  and  mischievous  officials,  to  the  exclu 
sion  of  the  capable  and  the  virtuous-;  who  sanctioned  the 
impolitic  and  ungenerous  displacement  of  able  and  high- 
souled  military  commanders,  in  order  to  make  way  for 

P2 


346  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

others  whom  the  army  despised,  and  the  citizens  at  large 
both  distrusted  and  hated — these  persons,  the  valueless, 
ephemera  of  an  age  over-fertile  in  inanities,  have  nearly 
all  disappeared  from  the  jostling  chaotic  stage  whereupon 
they  were  enacting  their  parts,  and, 

"Like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision, 
Left  not  a  wreck  behind." 

As  to  Mr.  Davis,  I  must  say  that  I  regard  him  mainly 
as  the  unfortunate  victim  of  dark  and  dangerous  political 
heresies  for  which  he  is  by  no  means  primarily  responsi 
ble  ;  a  victim,  likewise,  of  the  intriguing  machinations  of 
cunning  and  unscrupulous  managers,  whose  true  charac 
ter  he  had  never  penetrated ;  as  the  dupe  of  adulation 
and  of  false  promises  from  abroad  which  might  perchance 
have  deceived  men  far  more  sagacious  than  himself;  in 
fine,  as  the  almost  involuntary  instrument  of  dark  and  po 
tential  influences  generated  in  the  womb  of  devolution, 
which  led  him  to  claim  and  to  exercise  powers,  the  em 
ployment  of  which,  though  utterly  subversive  of  freedom, 
he  believed  to  be  indispensable  to  the  successful  execu 
tion  of  the  grand  scheme  of  secession,  to  which  he  had 
for  so  many  years  devoted  the  best  energies  both  of  his 
soul  and  his  understanding.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  wish 
evil  to  the  late  President  of  the  Confederate  States.  He 
has  been  unfortunate,  and  I  condole  with  him ;  he  has 
committed  great  and  grievous  errors,  and  I  make  all  just 
allowance  for  them.  He  is  unhappy,  and  I  sympathize 
with  him.  He  is  in  prison,  and  I  pray  night  and  day  for 
his  enlargement.  Though  he  permitted  his  heartless  Sec 
retary  of  War,  last  winter,  to  deprive  me  of  my  own  per 
sonal  liberty,  and  to  retain  me  in  "  durance  vile"  until 


DAVIS'S  GROSS  MISMANAGEMENT.  347 

discharged  on  habeas  corpus,  alone  on  account  of  my  pre 
suming  to  attempt  pacification,  when  I  found  both  Con 
gress  and  himself  bent  upon  the  farther  prosecution  of  a 
war  which  they  had  already  rendered  utterly  hopeless, 
yet,  so  far  from  feeling  resentment  or  unkindness  on  this 
account,  I  can  say  with  truth  that,  having  myself  thrice 
suffered  the  loss  of  personal  liberty  within  the  last  twelve 
months,  I  can,  in  reference  to  Mr.  Davis's  present  forlorn 
and  suffering  condition,  painfully  and  sorrowfully  exclaim 
(with  a  change  of  gender  only),  in  the  language  of  Queen 
Dido  to  -ZEneas,  "Non  ignarus  mali,  miseros  succurrere 
disco" 

It  will  not,  I  trust,  be  transcending  the  limits  which  I 
have  thus  prescribed  to  myself  to  say  that  Mr.  Davis 
must  be  inevitably  held  responsible  by  the  future  histo 
rian  for  the  appointment  to  places  of  high  civic  trust,  in 
cluding  the  positions  in  his  cabinet,  of  so  large  a  propor 
tion  of  incompetent  public  functionaries,  as  well  as  for 
his  obstinate  adherence  to  these  individuals  after  their  in 
ability  to  perform  the  duties  assigned  to  them  had  be 
come  manifest  to  all  save  himself;  nor  will  he  be  easily 
excused  for  his  unjust  and  illiberal  treatment  of  some  of 
the  most  meritorious  Confederate  military  commanders, 
who  had  drawn  their  swords,  and  enlisted  all  they  had 
of  life,  and  fame,  and  fortune  in  behalf  of  Southern  inde 
pendence.  The  impolitic  tenacity  with  which  he  contin 
ued  to  bolster  up  the  reputations  of  such  men  as  Bragg, 
and  Pemberton,  and  Hindman,  and  a  long  list  of  others 
of  the  same  stamp,  in  opposition  to  known  public  senti 
ment,  both  in  the  army  and  out  of  it,  and  to  the  utter 
sacrifice  of  all  rational  hopes  of  Confederate  success,  will 


348  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

constitute  a  picture  for  the  examination  of  an  unprej 
udiced  posterity  alike  unprecedented  and  indefensible. 
Twenty  years  hence  no  one  will  be  heard  to  deny  that 
to  the  direct  and  unwise  interference  in  great  military 
movements  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Davis  is  to  be  attributed 
nearly  all  the  principal  disasters  of  the  war.  In  the  gross 
mismanagement  of  the  "War  Department,  under  the  su 
pervision  and  control  of  Mr.  Davis  himself,  may  safely  be 
charged  the  calamitous  occurrences  at  Forts  Donelson  and 
Henry,  and  at  Koanoke  Island.  The  withdrawal  by  his 
own  express  order  from  the  Army  of  Tennessee  of  nearly 
ten  thousand-  men  for  the  purpose  of  being  transferred  to 
the  State  of  Mississippi,  just  before  the  battle  ofMurfrees- 
boro',  was  undoubtedly  the  especial  cause  of  the  loss  of 
that  sanguinary  field.  The  order  to  fight  that  battle, 
which  emanated  from  Mr.  Davis  himself,  while  he  was 
yet  in  the  neighborhood  of  Murfreesboro',  and,  in  case  of 
defeat,  to  fall  back  at  once  to  the  line  of  the  Tennessee, 
was  one  of  the  most  stupendous  blunders  of  which  the 
annals  of  war  have  as  yet  borne  testimony,  and  had  the 
effect  of  eventually  losing  the  great  and  important  State 
of  Tennessee  to  the  Confederate  cause.  The  rash  order 
afterward  given  by  the  same  personage,  that  Longstreet 
and  some  twenty  thousand  of  the  Confederate  soldiery 
should  be  detached  from  the  already  enfeebled  Army  of 
Tennessee,  and  sent  upon  an  unpromising  and  profitless 
errand  to  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  brought  on  the  disastrous 
result  at  Missionary  Ridge.  Mr.  Davis's  antecedent  dis 
placement  of  Beauregard  from  the  command  of  the  Army 
of  Tennessee,  and  the  substitution  of  Bragg  in  his  place, 
and  the  confiding  to  this  last-mentioned  officer  the  im- 


BRAGG  AND   PEMBERTON.  349 

portant  invading  movement  into  Kentucky,  awakened  at 
the  time  a  strong  feeling  both  of  surprise  and  of  regret 
in  the  minds  of  all  men  in  the  least  degree  capable  of 
judging  with  discernment  and  accuracy  touching  the  pol 
icy  of  such  a  proceeding ;  and  when  this  military  favorite 
of  the  President  afterward  allowed  Buell  and  his  feeble 
and  somewhat  demoralized  forces  to  pass,  almost  in  sight 
of  his  lines,  on  their  way  to  Louisville,  where  it  was 
known  that  the  Federal  army  could  be  immediately 
strengthened  by  recruits  to  an  almost  indefinite  extent, 
so  palpable  was  this  mistake,  that  there  were  not  want 
ing  men  in  the  Confederate  Congress,  who  were  only  ci 
vilians,  to  predict  with  confidence  that  Bragg,  with  the 
gallant  army  that  he  commanded,  would  be  inevitably 
and  speedily  driven  over  the  Cumberland  Mountains  and 
compelled  to  seek  refuge  once  more  in  Tennessee.  No 
reasonable  man  has  ever  doubted  that  the  retention  of 
Pemberton  at  Yicksburg,  and  the  tardiness  with  which 
General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  was  sent  to  aid  in  the  de 
fense  of  that  city,  brought  about  that  memorable  Fourth 
of  July  scene,  which  is  really  one  of  the  most  curious  and 
romantic  incidents  of  the  war.  The  sudden  displacement 
of  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  from  the  command  of  the 
army  at  Atlanta,  the  consequent  fall  of  that  city,  and  the 
absurd  and  unaccountable  order  issued  by  Mr.  Davis  that 
the  Confederate  army,  then  the  only  defense  of  Alabama, 
of  Georgia,  and  of  South  Carolina,  should  be  mysterious 
ly  dispatched  upon  a  bootless  errand  to  the  city  of 
Nashville,  there  to  endure  the  most  cruel  disasters,  while 
all  the  great  cotton-growing  region  to  the  south  was  laid 
open  to  the  strong  invading  force  under  Sherman,  can 


350  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

scarcely  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for  even  on  the  score 
of  judicial  blindness. 

By  a  somewhat  singular  coincidence,  I  had  just  writ 
ten  the  preceding  sentence,  when  the  elaborate  report  of 
General  Grant,  which  is  at  this  moment  commanding  so 
much  of  the  public  attention,  came  to  hand.  I  was  natu 
rally  anxious  to  learn  how  far  the  views  which  I  had 
expressed  in  my  place  in  the  Confederate  Congress  were 
in  unison  with  those  of  one  of  the  first  military  command 
ers  of  the  age.  On  glancing  at  that  part  of  the  report 
which  refers  to  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Davis  at  this  precise 
period,  I  find  the  following  very  striking  remarks:  "Gen 
eral  Sherman,  immediately  after  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  put 
his  armies  in  camp  in  and  about  the  place,  and  made  all 
preparation  for  refitting  and  supplying  them  for  future 
service.  The  great  length  of  road  from  Atlanta  to  Cum 
berland  Eiver,  however,  which  had  to  be  guarded,  allow 
ed  the  troops  but  little  rest.  During  this  time  Jefferson 
Davis  made  a  speech  in  Macon,  Georgia,  which  was  re 
ported  in  the  papers  in  the  South,  and  soon  became 
known  to  the  whole  country,  disclosing  the  plans  of  the 
enemy,  thus  enabling  General  Sherman  fully  to  meet 
them.  He  exhibited  the  weakness  of  supposing  that  an 
army  that  had  been  beaten  and  fearfully  decimated  in  a 
vain  attempt  at  the  defensive,  could  successfully  under 
take  the  offensive  against  the  army  that  had  so  often  de 
feated  it." 

This  same  speech  of  Mr.  Davis  is  one  of  the  most  re 
markable  on  record  in  several  other  respects.  In  it  he 
denounced,  in  very  coarse  language,  the  high-spirited  and 
intelligent  Governor  of  Georgia  for  having  (as  Mr.  Davis, 


ME.  DAVIS  IN   GEORGIA.  351 

it  would  seem,  had  been  informed)  charged  him  with  in 
tending  to  abandon  Georgia  to  the  mercy  of  the  invading 
force,  when,  at  that  precise  moment,  the  very  scheme  of 
abandonment,  so  emphatically  denied,  was  in  a  course 
of  rapid  execution.  He  assailed,  at  the  same  time,  the 
valiant  Johnston,  whom  he  had  recently  so  unwisely  dis 
placed  from  the  command  of  the  Army  of  Tennessee,  in 
language  alike  unjust  and  impolitic.  I  remember  well 
that,  when  the  printed  copy  of  this  extraordinary  ha 
rangue  reached  the  city  of  Kichmond,  Mr.  Davis's  earnest 
friends  and  admirers  there  were  as  much  shocked  by  its 
appearance  as  was  the  population  of  that  city  generally, 
and  it  was  openly  declared  by  them  to  be  a  shameful  fab 
rication.  Upon  Mr.  Davis's  return  to  Eichmond,  though, 
he  having  duly  acknowledged  its  genuineness,  these  Same 
friends  and  admirers,  including  the  conductors  of  the 
government  organ  (the  Sentinel),  fell  into  ecstasies  over 
it,  declaring  that  it  was  a  wise  and  paternal  address  of 
the  pater  patriot  to  his  erring  children. 

"When,  in  the  month  of  February,  1862, 1  reached  the 
city  of  Eichmond,  the  condition  of  Confederate  affairs 
was  beginning  to  wear  a  most  gloomy  and  discouraging 
aspect.  The  disastrous  affair  at  Fishing  Creek  had  oc 
curred  ;  Forts  Donelson  and  Henry  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  Federal  forces ;  General  Albert  Sidney  John 
son  had  been  forced  to  abandon  Bowling  Green,  and  -re 
treat  before  the  overwhelming  Federal  force  through 
Tennessee,  down  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  northern 
portion  of  the  State  of  Mississippi ;  Eoanoke  Island  had 
been  also  attacked  and  captured,  and  New  Orleans  was 
evidently  in  danger  of  undergoing  the  same  fate.  All 


352  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

these  calamities,  and  a  number  of  other  casualties  not  nec 
essary  to  be  now  specified,  had  been  directly  traced  to  the 
gross  incompetency  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Judah 
P.  Benjamin,  who,  by-the-by,  though,  had  never  been  any 
thing  more  than  a  mere  clerk  in  the  War  Department,  acting 
uniformly  under  the  direction  of  his  executive  chief,  Mr. 
Davis..  Under  these  circumstances  was  Mr.  Davis  inaug 
urated  as  permanent  President  of  the  Confederate  States. 
It  was  obvious  to  me,  at  a  moment's  glance,  that  the  Con 
federate  cause  was  then  almost  at  its  last  gasp,  and  that 
unless  something  was  immediately  done  to  buoy  it  up, 
the  hopes  of  Southern  independence,  a  few  months  before 
so  confidently  indulged  by  some,  would  be  forever  extin 
guished.  It  is  a  most  remarkable  fact,  the  truth  of  which 
is  indisputable,  that  neither  Mr.  Davis  nor  his  Secretary 
of  War  had,  even  up  to  that  time,  become  satisfied  of  the 
importance  of  erecting  defenses,  either  by  land  or  water, 
which  might  serve  to  save  the  city  of  Eichmond  from 
being  entered  by  the  forces  of  the  United  States,  known 
then  to  be  on  their  way  to  the  Confederate  capital.  Gov 
ernor  Letcher  had  endeavored  to  attract  the  attention  of 
Mr.  Davis  to  this  important  matter,  and  had  been  treated 
on  the  occasion  in  a  manner  most  discourteous — Mr.  Da 
vis  seeming  to  Tegard  it  as  an  act  of  supreme  presump 
tion  on  the  part  of  this  vigilant  and  discerning  function 
ary  to  intermeddle  with  an  affair  which  he,  as  Confeder 
ate  president,  recognized  as  exclusively  within  the  scope 
of  his  own  jurisdiction.  It  was  obvious  to  me,  as  it  was 
to  all  men  of  discernment  with  whom  I  held  intercourse 
at  the  time,  that  it  was  utterly  impossible  for  the  claim  to 
Southern  independence  to  be  maintained  by  arms,  unless 


MR.  DAVIS'S   CABINET.  353 

great  and  radical  reforms  in  the  administration  of  Con 
federate  affairs  could  be  affected  without  delay.  No  sen 
sible  man  could  for  a  moment  doubt  that  an  immediate 
and  pretty  general  change  of  cabinet  officers  was  indis 
pensable.  There  were  only  two  of  these  functionaries 
whose  official  qualifications  were  even  respectable — the 
Attorney  General,  Mr.  Watts,  of  Alabama,  and  the  Post 
master  General,  Mr.  Eeagan,  of  Texas.  The  Secretary  of 
War  (Mr.  Benjamin),  besides  his  inability  to  meet  the  mil 
itary  exigencies  which  he  had  been  encountering,  as  well 
as  the  more  serious  ones  in  prospect,  was  subject  to  other 
objections,  as  the  incumbent  of  a  high  cabinet  position, 
of  the  greatest  and  most  vital  character.  His  reputation 
for  integrity  had  never  been  good,  and  of  late  years  it  had 
become  deeply  tarnished  by  his  known  participancy  in 
schemes  of  notorious  corruption  both  in  the  State  of 
Louisiana  and  in  Washington  City.  The  offensive  moral 
odor  arising  from  the  celebrated  Houmas  fraud  (one  of 
the  most  unblushing  and  profligate  legislative  transac 
tions  that  had  ever  disgraced  the  annals  of  a  free  people) 
had  affixed  such  a  stigma  upon  the  reputation  both  of 
Mr.  Benjamin  and  his  friend  and  patron,  Mr.  John  A. 
Slidell,  as  it  was  not  possible  that  any  lapse  of  time  could 
entirely  efface.  It  was  quite  evident  that  it  was  not  in 
the  power  of  Mr.  Davis,  or  of  a  thousand  such  persons, 
to  reconcile  the  unsophisticated  popular  mind  of  the 
South  to  either  of  these  personages ;  nor  would  it  have 
been  possible,  even  for  Washington  himself,  to  have  pre 
served  his  own  fame  unsullied,  while  apparently  yielding 
his  unreserved  confidence  to  such  notorious  dabblers  in 
iniquity.  At  the  moment  of  Mr.  Davis's  entering  upon 


354  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

his  official  career  as  permanent  president,  it  was  plain  that 
an  excellent  opportunity  was  presented  to  him  of  correct 
ing  the  mistakes  which,  it  was  most  manifest,  he  had  com 
mitted  in  the  beginning  of  his  official  career  as  the  chief 
executive  officer  of  the  Confederate  States ;  and  it  was 
confidently  hoped  by  many  that  this  opportunity  would 
be  promptly  embraced  by  him  of  calling  around  him  men 
of  the  highest  abilities  and  of  the  most  unquestioned 
moral  worth  that  the  Southern  States  contained.  Be 
sides,  it  had  in  some  way  happened  that  Mr.  Davis,  al 
ways  too  much  of  a  mere  party  man  in  the  former  part 
of  his  career,  had  filled  a  very  large  number  of  all  the 
official  positions  in  his  gift  with  persons  who  had  voted 
with  him  in  1860  for  Breckenridge  and  Lane ;  and  as  the 
whole  population  of  the  South  (that  is  to  say,  all  who 
had  yielded  their  adhesion  to  the  Confederate  cause)  had 
voted  for  him  in  the  presidential  election  which  had  just 
terminated,  it  was  regarded  as  both  reasonable  and  prop 
er  that,  in  the  distribution  of  official  appointments,  he 
should  show  himself  altogether  superior  to  ancient  party 
prejudices.  But  such  was  far  from  being  the  case.  The 
names  of  such  men  as  William  C.  Eives,  John  Bell,  Wil 
liam  A;  Graham,  and  others,  when  mentioned  to  him  in 
connection  with  important  offices  in  his  gift,  are  well 
known  only  to  have  called  forth  from  him  the  most 
scornful  and  derisive  responses.  Censures  imposed  upon 
his  chosen  cabinet  advisers  he  was  ever  ready  to  treat  as 
a  direct  insult  to  himself,  and,  in  fact,  as  the  perpetration 
of  a  sort  of  contempt  for  his  own  official  dignity.  The 
truth  is,  that  it  was  very  soon  ascertained  that  his  head 
had  been  completely  turned  by  his  sudden  elevation  to 


FIRST  CONGRESSIONAL  OPPOSITION.  355 

the  place  which  he  then  occupied,  and  he  had  become  the 
victim  of  "that  weakest  weakness,  vanity" 

At  this  period  nothing  like  a  manly  opposition  to  Mr. 
Davis's  administration  in  either  house  of  Congress  had 
been  displayed ;  and  yet  it  was  most  plain  that,  unless 
some  such  opposition  should  soon  manifest  itself,  all  for 
which  the  Southern  people  were  so  valiantly  struggling 
would  be  inevitably  lost  to  them,  together  with  all  the 
freedom  which  they  had  claimed  to  possess  before  the 
commencement  of  the  struggle  then  in  progress.  I  know 
not  what  other  men  may  suppose  it  was  my  duty,  as  a 
man  originally  averse  to  the  war,  and  sincerely  anxious 
for  an  honorable  peace,  to  do  under  such  circumstances 
as  I  have  described  ;  but  I  know  what  I  did  do.  This 
has  already  been  stated  by  a  gentleman  who  has  recent 
ly  given  to  the  public  three  volumes  of  a  well  written 
and  interesting  historic  work,  and  in  language  strictly  in 
unison  with  the  truth,  except  that  this  accomplished 
writer  has  been  far  too  complimentary  to  myself,  and 
has,  as  I  believe  (doubtless  unintentionally),  failed  to  do 
full  justice  to  others  in  the  Confederate  Congress  well 
worthy  of  praise,  both  for  personal  independence  and  for 
very  high  ability.* 

*  "There  was  but  little  opposition  in  Congress  to  President  Davis ;  but 
there  was  some  which  took  a  direction  to  his  cabinet,  and  this  opposition 
was  represented  by  Mr.  Foote,  of  Tennessee  —  a  man  of  acknowledged 
ability  and  many  virtues  of  character,  who  had  re-entered  upon  the  polit 
ical  stage  after  a  public  life  which,  however  it  lacked  in  the  cheap  merit 
of  partisan  consistency,  had  been  adorned  by  displays  of  wonderful  intel 
lect  and  great  political  genius.  Mr.  Foote  was  not  a  man  to  be  deterred 
from  speaking  the  truth ;  his  quickness  to  resentment,  and  his  chivalry, 
which,  though  somewhat  Quixotic,  was  founded  in  the  most  noble  and 


356  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

Just  about  the  time  that  I  was  laboring  most  assidu 
ously  to  relieve  the  Department  of  War  of  Mr.  Benjamin, 
by  calling  forth,  as  far  as  it  might  be  in  my  power  to  do 
so,  co-operative  responses  from  the  people,  an  occurrence 
took  place  in  social  life  in  Eichmond  which  had  much 
effect,  not  only  upon  the  fate  of  Mr.  Benjamin,  but  which, 
in  the  sequel,  had  much  influence  also  upon  the  course 
of  public  events.  I  chanced  to  be  invited  to  a  dinner 
party,  where  some  twenty  of  the  most  prominent  mem 
bers  of  the  two  houses  of  the  Confederate  Congress  were 
congregated,  including  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Eep- 
resentatives,  Mr.  Orr,  of  South  Carolina,  and  others  of 
equal  rank.  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  was  also  an  in 
vited  guest.  While  the  banquet  was  proceeding,  Mr. 
Benjamin's  gross  acts  of  official  misconduct  becoming  the 
subject  of  conversation,  one  of  the  company  turned  to 
General  Johnston,  and  inquired  whether  he  thought  it 
even  possible  that  the  Confederate  cause  could  succeed 
with  Mr.  Benjamin  as  war  minister.  To  this  inquiry, 
General  Johnston,  after  a  little  pause,  emphatically  re 
sponded  in  the  negative.  This  high  authority  was  imme 
diately  cited  in  both  houses  of  Congress  against  Mr.  Ben 
jamin,  and  was  in  the  end  fatal  to  his  hopes  of  remain 
ing  in  the  Department  of  War.  Mr.  Davis,  after  defer 
ring  the  sending  in  of  his  nominations  for  cabinet  ap- 

delicate  sense  of  honor,  made  those  who  would  have  bullied  or  silenced  a 
weaker  person  stand  in  awe  of  him.  A  man  of  such  temper  was  not 
likely  to  stint  words  in  assailing  an  opponent ;  and  his  sharp  declama 
tions  in  Congress,  his  searching  comments,  and  his  great  powers  of  sar 
casm,  used  upon  such  men  as  Mallory,  Benjamin,  and  Huger,  were  the 
only  relief  of  the  dullness  of  the  Congress,  and  the  only  historical  features 
of  its  debates." — POLLARD'S  First  Year  of  the  War. 


INCOMPETENCY  OF   DAVIS'S  CABINET.  357 

pointments,  under  the  permanent  Constitution,  for  nearly 
four  weeks,  in  order  to  have  it  in  his  power  to  persuade 
the  Senate  to  confirm  Mr.  Benjamin  as  Secretary  of  War, 
in  the  event  of  his  being  renominated,  ultimately  relin 
quished  this  object  in  despair — that  body,  however  ac 
commodating  it  was  in  general  to  executive  fancies,  hav 
ing  been  found  unwilling  to  participate  in  the  terrible 
responsibility  of  such  an  act.  Mr.  Benjamin  was  finally' 
nominated  for  the  Department  of  State,  and  was  con 
firmed,  by  a  very  small  majority,  for  that  place,  where  he 
had  it  in  his  power,  both  abroad  and  at  home,  to  perpe 
trate  more  barefaced  acts  of  corruption  and  profligacy 
than  any  single  individual  has  ever  been  known  to  com 
mit  in  the  same  space  of  time  in  any  part  of  Christen 
dom.  I  will  here  remark,  in  passing,  that  this  frank  and 
manly  declaration  of  General  Johnston  rendered  both 
Mr.  Davis  and  Mr.  Benjamin  alike  hostile  to  him,  and  he 
was  fated  to  experience  the  effect  of  their  malevolence 
on  more  than  one  subsequent  occasion  previous  to  his 
ultimate  deprivation  of  military  command. 

All  the  efforts  which  could  be  essayed  by  others  as 
well  as  by  myself  to  effect  the  removal  of  Mr.  Mallory, 
the  Confederate  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  of  Mr.  Mem- 
minger,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  were  completely 
ineffectual,  though  these  efforts  continued  to  be  made  for 
several  years.  About  six  months  before  the  fall  of  Eich- 
mond  into  the  hands  of  the  Federal  forces,  I  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  vote  upon  a  resolution  declarative  of  want 
of  legislative  confidence  in  Mr.  Memminger,  which  com 
pelled  the  friends  of  that  gentleman  in  the  House  to  en 
gage  for  him  that  he  would  resign  immediately  after  the 


358  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

close  of  the  session  of  Congress  then  in  progress,  if  I 
would  consent  not  to  press  my  resolution  to  a  final  vote. 
This  I  cheerfully  assented  to,  and  in  a  few  weeks  there 
after  Mr.  Memminger  gave  place  to  Mr.  Trenholm,  of 
South  Carolina,  who  proved  himself  to  be  a  most  compe 
tent  and  efficient  officer,  and  a  most  meritorious  and  wor 
thy  gentleman. 

Very  great  mischief  notoriously  resulted  to  the  Con 
federate  cause  from  the  long  retention  in  the  office  of 
commissary  general  of  Colonel  Northrop.  This  person 
is  understood  to  be  a  native  of  South  Carolina,  and  had 
spent  some  years  in  the  city  of  Charleston  anterior  to  the 
war  as  a  practitioner  of  medicine  upon  the  vegetarian 
system.  Some  mysterious  circumstances,  not  heretofore 
explained,  had  in  some  way,  many  years  previous  to  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  established  relations  of  special 
amity  and  confidence  between  himself  and  Mr.  Davis,  in 
consideration  of  which  he  had  been  located  in  an  official 
position  for  which  he  was  in  every  way  as  utterly  unfit 
as  any  human  being  could  be  well  imagined  to  be.  His 
appearance  was  most  unprepossessing  indeed ;  his  man 
ners  were  coarse,  overbearing,  and  insulting ;  his  temper 
was  austere,  crabbed,  and  irritating ;  he  was  utterly  igno 
rant  of  the  duties  of  the  post  assigned  him,  and  was  not 
at  all  solicitous  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  them. 
His  self-esteem  was  the  most  inordinate  that  I  have  ever 
known  any  human  being  to  possess,  and  no  man  at  all 
capable  of  judging  of  such  a  matter  would  have  regarded 
him  as  in  all  respects  compos  mentis.  A  general  impres 
sion  had  long  prevailed  in  Charleston  that  he  was,  in 
point  of  fact,  more  or  less  disordered  in  mind ;  and  dur- 


NORTHROP  AND  HIS  SUBORDINATES.  359 

ing  the  three  years  that  I  occupied  a  seat  in  the  Confed 
erate  Congress,  I  received  numerous  letters  from  citizens 
of  the  highest  respectability  residing  there,  urging  me,  in 
the  warmest  terms,  to  aid  in  displacing  him  from  the  po 
sition  which  he  was  so  signally  disgracing.  I  am  not 
prepared  to  assert  any  thing  in  regard  to  his  pecuniary 
honesty;  but  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  all  over  the 
Confederate  States  he  had  men  employed  to  purchase 
supplies  for  his  department  of  notoriously  bad  character, 
not  a  small  number  of  whom  are  known  to  have  accu 
mulated  large  fortunes  during  the  war,  the  names  of  some 
of  whom  I  could,  were  it  necessary,  quite  easily  specify, 
having  brought  their  iniquities  heretofore  to  the  view  of 
the  Confederate  Congress.  The  heartless  tyranny  prac 
ticed  by  this  monster  of  iniquity  in  all  the  States  of  the 
South,  in  connection  with  the  system  of  forcible  impress 
ment  established,  has,  I  am  persuaded,  scarcely  ever  been 
equaled.  His  brutal  indifference  to  the  sufferings  of  the 
Confederate  soldiery,  by  all  of  whom  he  was  most  cor 
dially  detested;  his  indecent  and  habitual  disregard  of 
the  requisitions  made  upon  his  department,  from  time  to 
time,  by  the  various  military  commanders  with  whom  he 
was  necessarily  thrown  into  contact ;  his  open  and  noto 
rious  employment  of  disrespectful  and  contemptuous  lan 
guage  in  regard  to  those  in  official  station  to  whom  he 
was  legally  subordinate,  are  matters  upon  which  it  would 
be  now  superfluous  to  dwell.  Yet  he  was  retained  in  the 
Commissary  Department  for  four  years,  in  utter  contempt 
of  remonstrance,  of  complaint,  and  of  direct  and  positive 
accusations  of  delinquency.  It  is  even  true  that  Mr. 
Northrop  was  not  a  constitutional  officer ;  after  the  com- 


360  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

mencement  of  the  permanent  Confederate  government  he 
was  never  nominated  to  the  Senate.  But,  though  this 
matter  was  brought  to  Mr.  Davis's  special  notice  by  grave 
proceedings  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  he  still  held  on 
to  Northrop,  nor  did  he  ever  deign  to  present  his  name  to 
the  Senate  for  the  sanction  of  that  body  up  to  the  latest 
moment  of  his  own  official  existence. 

When  Mr.  Benjamin  was  compelled  to  forego  re-ap 
pointment  to  the  secretaryship  of  war,  Mr.  Davis  was  per 
suaded  to  appoint  to  the  vacant  place  a  gentleman  of  rare 
qualifications  and  of  eminent  moral  worth — Mr.  Eandolph, 
of  Virginia,  a  grandson  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  During  this 
gentleman's  occupancy  of  the  department  of  war  his  con 
duct  was  eminently  exemplary ;  his  high  ability  was  con 
stantly  displayed  in  the  performance  of  his  arduous  offi 
cial  duties,  his  industry  was  most  untiring,  and  he  gave 
the  most  indisputable  evidence,  every  day  and  hour,  of 
his  eminent  virtues,  and  his  disinterested  devotion  to  the 
cause  which  he  had  espoused.  He  was  a  man,  though, 
of  singular  independence  of  spirit ;  and,  though  sufficient 
ly  deferential  toward  those  to  whom  he  was  officially  re 
sponsible,  yet  he  possessed  too  elevated  a  feeling  of  self- 
respect,,  and  too  much  regard  for  his  own  well-established 
fame,  to  become  the  mere  slave  of  a  vain  and  arrogant 
chief  magistrate ;  so,  in  a  short  time,  the  public  learned 
with  regret  that  General  Eandolph  had  resigned  and  gone 
into  private  life,  and  that  Mr.  James  A.  Seddon,  also  a  na 
tive  of  Virginia,  had  shown  himself  so  indecently  regard 
less  of  the  honor  of  the  "  Ancient  Dominion"  as  to  con 
sent  to  occupy  the  vacant  post. 

From  a  man  who  had  been  willingly  inducted  into  of- 


JAMES   A.  SEDDON.  361 

fice  under  such  circumstances  not  much  was  to  be  rea 
sonably  expected,  either  of  manly  and  efficient  service  or 
of  official  purity  and  disinterestedness.  The  career  of 
Mr.  Seddon,  as  Secretary  of  War,  will  long  be  remem 
bered  by  all  who  ever  entered  the  War  Department 
while  he  sat  enthroned  therein  with  unmingled  regret 
and  indignation.  It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  he  did 
not  possess  one  of  the  qualities  needful  to  a  creditable 
and  useful  performance  of  the  duties  which  were  now  de 
volved  on  him.  He  was  never  able  to  learn  even  the  or 
dinary  routine  of  official  business,  and  often  scornfully 
declined  attendance  to  matters  of  the  most  urgent  import 
ance.  He  was  as  arrogant  and  insulting  to  those  who  ap 
proached  him  in  his  official  sanctum,  as  he  was  notorious 
ly  servile  and  fawning  to  his  own  executive  chief.  He 
evinced,  from  his  very  entrance  into  office,  an  utter  disre 
gard  of  all  constitutional  obligations ;  and  in  the  exercise 
of  the  authority  committed  to  him,  he  proved  himself  to 
be  the  most  heartless  and  ruffianly  tyrant  whom  I  ever 
yet  saw  in  the  possession  of  official  power.  Though  he 
had  always  been  an  ardent  state-rights  man  in  profession, 
up  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  it  soon  became  evi 
dent  that  he  had  never  sincerely  cherished  the  smallest 
regard  for  the  principles  embodied  in  the  well-known 
state-rights  creed ;  and  he  habitually  trampled  under 
foot,  and  without  a  blush  upon  his  livid  and  atrabilious 
visage,  all  the  anciently-recognized  muniments  of  state 
sovereignty.  I  shall  not  waste  time  now  by  going  into 
an  elaborate  specification  of  this  man's  multiplied  of 
fenses.  It  is  perhaps  sufficient  to  state  that  he  enforced, 
with  the  most  unfeeling  rigor,  all  the  most  stringent  and 

Q 


362  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

oppressive  enactments  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  in 
connection  with  forcible  impressment  and  conscription  ;* 

*  I  seize  the  opportunity  here  presented  of  mentioning  an  instance  of 
the  greatest  atrocity,  which  I  have  not  yet  recorded,  and  which  will  be  at 
once  seen  to  be  curiously  illustrative  of  the  shameful  disregard,  now  gen 
erally  felt  in  official  places,  of  all  the  recognized  principles  of  civil  liberty. 
General  Hindman,  of  Arkansas,  who,  when  a  very  young  man,  had,  in 
the  State  of  Mississippi,  been  a  most  noisy  and  unscrupulous  advocate  of 
Jefferson  Davis  and  secession  at  that  time  propounded  —  who  had  after 
ward  gone  to  Arkansas,  where  he  had  led,  for  several  years,  a  very  turbu 
lent  and  disreputable  life,  but,  who,  by  force  of  party  drill,  had  been  sent  for 
a  year  or  two  to  the  Federal  Congress — when  the  war  broke  out,  was  almost 
immediately  given  a  high  military  command,  and  was  rapidly  promoted, 
until,  as  a  major  general,  he  was  sent  to  the  state  of  his  own  residence,  for 
the  purpose  of  holding  an  important  position  there.  This  man,  as  his 
own  formal  report  to  the  War  Department  evidenced,  finding,  as  he  said, 
that  the  very  comprehensive  provisions  of  the  conscription  law  were  not 
quite  comprehensive  enough  to  suit  his  purposes,  deliberately  amplified 
them  by  proclamation ;  declared  martial  law  throughout  Arkansas  and 
the  northern  portion  of  Texas,  and  demanded  the  services  of  all  whom  he 
had  thus  illegally  and  tyrannically  embraced  in  his  own  wide-sweeping 
conscription  list.  All  who  refused  to  obey  his  mandate,  as  he  expressly 
confesses,  were  apprehended,  subjected  to  trial  by  a  military  court  appoint 
ed  at  the  instant  by  Hindman  himself,  and  when  convicted,  as  a  consider 
able  number  were,  of  an  offense  which  he  unblushingly  acknowledges  in 
this  same  report  were  wholly  unknown  to  the  law  of  the  land,  he  had 
them  executed,  and,  going  even  beyond  the  infernal  Jeffreys  himself  in 
barbarity,  he,  as  he  also  ostentatiously  declares  in  that  same  report,  took 
care  to  be  present  to  witness  the  dying  agonies  of  his  victims.  This  man 
seized  upon  all  the  cotton  and  other  property  for  which  he  had  use  (as  he 
boldly  avows),  burnt  some,  retained  some,  and  appropriated  a  third  por 
tion  to  such  purposes  as  he  pleased.  His  cruelties  were  so  enormous  in 
Arkansas  that  it  became  unsafe  that  he  should  remain  there  longer, 
when  he  was  brought  across  the  Mississippi  River,  under  the  order  of  the 
War  Department,  made  president  of  a  court  of  inquiry  for  the  trial  of 
General  Lovell,  and,  after  having  made  such  a  report  in  that  case  as  was 
necessary  to  shield  the  officials  in  Richmond  from  blame  in  connection 


BRAGG  AND  HIS  CRUELTIES.  363 

that  in  many  known  instances  he  went  very  far  beyond 
the  scope  of  these  odious  enactments,  while  in  others  he 

with  the  capture  of  New  Orleans,  was  immediately  put  in  command  of  the 
largest  division  in  the  Army  of  Tennessee,  where  he  remained  until,  run 
ning  into  collision  with  a  more  potential  presidential  favorite,  Bragg,  he 
was  relieved  from  command,  and  is  reported  to  be  now  a  wanderer  in 
some  part  of  the  Mexican  republic.  I  exposed  all  the  enormities  of  this 
wretch  in  open  session  in  the  Confederate  Congress  on  more  than  one  oc 
casion,  and  took  pains  to  have  my  exposition  put  in  print,  and  yet  could 
I  not  persuade  Mr.  Davis  or  Mr.  Seddon  to  take  the  slightest  notice  of 
these  fearful  enormities. 

I  have  incidentally  alluded  to  jGeneral  Bragg.  This  military  com 
mander  first  set  the  example  of  proclaiming  martial  law,  which  he  did  re 
peatedly,  and  upon  the  most  unsatisfactory  pretexts.  I  assert  what  I 
know  to  be  true — charged  to  be  true  on  more  than  one  occasion  in  the 
Confederate  Congress,  and  now  stand  prepared  to  establish,  by  the  most 
irrefutable  proof,  that  he  deliberately  put  to  death,  on  repeated  occasions, 
without  the  least  show  of  legal  authority  (even  such  authority  as  the  legal 
regulations  existing  under  the  Confederate  government  recognized),  as 
meritorious  and  valiant  soldiers  as  he  had  under  his  command.  He 
evinced  on  all  occasions,  while  he  commanded  the  Army  of  Tennessee,  an 
utter  disregard  of  all  the  established  principles  of  constitutional  freedom, 
committed  such  excesses  as  a  Syl]a  or  a  Marius  would  scarcely  have  ven 
tured  upon,  and  yet,  in  spite  of  all  that  could  be  done,  his  removal  from 
command  could  not  be  effected  until  the  Confederate  cause  had  become 
well-nigh  utterly  hopeless.  On  one  occasion,  in  company  with  a  major 
ity  of  the  Tennessee  representatives  and  senators,  I  united  in  demand 
ing  the  removal  of  General  Bragg,  and  the  substitution  in  his  place  of 
General  Joseph  E.Johnston.  A  written  communication  had  been  ad 
dressed  to  the  Confederate  President  requesting  an  interview,  and  de 
siring  that  it  should  be  a  private  one.  He  had  consented  to  see  us  at 
a  particular  hour  at  his  office  (I  could  not  have  seen  him  elsewhere,  as 
I  never  once  called  at  the  presidential  mansion  while  a  member  of  the 
Confederate  Congress).  We  were  received  with  sufficient  politeness, 
but  we  presently  perceived  that  Mr.  Hunter,  of  Virginia,  and  Mr.  Barn- 
well,  of  South  Carolina,  were  to  be  also  present.  I  addressed  these  gen 
tlemen,  and  suggested  to  them  that  as  they  seemed  to  have  precedence 


364  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

criminally  relaxed  the  law  in  order  to  accommodate  spe 
cial  friends  or  the  members  of  his  own  family  connection ; 
that  he  was  an  earnest  advocate  for  the  suspension  of  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  that  when  this  writ  was  sus 
pended  in  a  manner  completely  to  uproot  every  thing 
like  civic  jurisdiction  in  every  part  of  the  South,  he  ea 
gerly  took  advantage  of  this  condition  of  things  to  fill  the 
prison-houses  every  where  with  as  good  citizens  as  the 
South  contained,  and  to  compel  individuals  to  do  military 
duty,  in  violation  of  the  most  solemn  governmental  com 
pacts.  This  was  especially  true  in  regard  to  the  six  or 
seven  thousand  volunteers  from  the  State  of  Maryland, 
who,  after  enlisting,  without  persuasion  from  any  quarter, 
in  the  Confederate  service  for  a  specified  period,  when  this 
period  had  expired  were  rudely  seized  upon  by  the  myr 
midons  of  the  War  Department  with  a  view  to  compelling 
them  to  re-enlist,  under  the  penalty,  if  they  disobeyed  the 
mandate  of  the  despot  in  whose  hands  they  found  them 
selves,  of  being  tried  and  punished  as  for  desertion.  It  is 
even  true,  within  my  own  knowledge,  that  when  that 

over  us,  we  would  withdraw  until  their  business  was  dispatched.  To  this 
they  answered,  "No,  it  is  unnecessary,"  and  took  their  seats  between  a 
large  table  and  the  wall,  near  enough  to  hear  all  that  might  go  on.  Our 
interview  was  very  brief.  Mr.  Davis  gave  us  to  understand  that  the 
change  which  we  demanded  should  be  made,  and  we  withdrew.  This, 
by-the-by,  was  not  done,  and  Bragg  remained  in  command  for  many 
months  thereafter.  I  recollect  that  Major  Henry,  of  Tennessee,  inquired 
of  me,  as  we  left  the  room,  whether  I  thought  that  Mr.  Hunter  and  Mr. 
Barnwell  had  been  requested  by  Mr.  Davis  to  be  present,  in  order  to  bear 
witness  to  what  might  occur.  To  which  I  answered,  that  I  would  not  un 
dertake  to  decide ;  but,  considering  that  we  had  been  all  treated  most 
disrespectfully,  it  was  the  last  official  visit  that  I  should  pay  Mr.  Davis,  as 
indeed  it  was.  This  surely  needs  no  comment. 


ATEOCITIES  OF  MR.  SEDDON.  365 

firm  and  upright  judicial  magistrate,  Judge  Haliburton, 
undertook  in  certain  cases  to  grant  writs  of  habeas  corpus 
in  behalf  of  some  of  those  persecuted  Mary-landers,  and 
manifested  a  disposition  to  do  them  simple  justice  as  far, 
at  least,  as  was  in  his  power,  Mr.  Seddon  evinced  an  open 
disregard  even  of  the  authority  of  the  Confederate  dis 
trict  judge,  and  that  officer  was  even  informed,  in  the  col 
umns  of  the  recognized  governmental  organ  (the  Senti 
nel),  which  doubtless  "spoke  by  the  card,"  that  the  Sec 
retary  of  War  would  pay  no  respect  whatever  to  the 
most  deliberate  adjudications  of  the  court  in  which  he 
presided,  touching  the  grave  questions  which  had  thus 
arisen  before  him  for  decision.  And  yet  Mr.  Davis  re 
tained  this  man  in  the  office  of  secretary  of  war,  amid 
continual  indications  of  popular  indignation  and  disgust, 
from  month  to  month  and  from  year  to  year ;  nor  would 
he  have  been  at  last  seen  to  vacate  the  official-  position 
which  he  had  so  long  deeply  dishonored,  but  for  the  un 
deniable  fact  that  I  had  directly  charged  him,  upon  re 
corded  testimony,  that  is  to  say,  upon  the  evidences  sup 
plied  by  the  books  of  his  own  department,  of  having 
caused  to  be  paid  to  himself,  by  his  own  official  subor 
dinates,  forty  dollars  per  bushel  for  his  whole  crog  of  wheat 
for  the  year  1864,  while  he  was,  by  the  instrumentality 
of  forcible  impressment,  compelling  the  farmers  of  North 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  other  states,  to  yield  up  their  wheat 
to  the  government  officials  at  the  inadequate  price  of  from 
seven  to  nine  dollars  in  Confederate  paper.  I  made  this  ex 
position  in  the  last  speech  which  I  delivered  in  the  Con 
federate  Congress.  Mr.  Seddon  resigned  the  Department 
of  War  the  very  next  day.  As  chairman  of  a  special  com- 


366  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

mittee  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  organized  at  my  own 
instance,  for  the  purpose  of  inquiring  into  cases  of  illegal 
imprisonment,  I  obtained  from  the  superintendent  of  the 
prison-house  in  Eichmond,  under  the  official  sanction  of 
the  Department  of  War  itself,  a  grim  and  shocking  cata 
logue  of  several  hundred  prisoners  then  in  confinement 
therein,  not  one  of  whom  was  charged  with  any  thing  but 
suspected  political  infidelity,  and  this,  too,  not  upon  oath  in 
a  single  instance.  Before  I  could  take  proper  steps  to 
procure  the  discharge  of  these  unhappy  men,  the  second 
suspension  of  the  writ  of  liberty  occurred,  and  I  presume 
that  such  of  them  as  did  not  die  in  jail  remained  there 
until  the  fall  of  Eichmond  into  the  hands  of  the  Federal 
forces. 

It  is  a  notorious  and  undeniable  fact,  that  Mr.  Seddon, 
as  the  incumbent  of  the  War  Department,  did  actually 
interfere,  in  the  most  rude  and  unfeeling  manner,  to  pre 
vent  the  passing  beyond  the  Confederate  lines  of  ladies 
of  the  highest  respectability  desirous  only  of  carrying 
their  infant  female  children  to  school  in  Maryland  and 
other  states,  where  the  ordinary  means  of  education  yet 
existed,  hoping  in  this  way  to  save  them  from  a  portion 
of  the  worst  consequences  of  the  unfortunate  war  then  in 
progress.  This  I  assert  upon  my  own  personal  knowl 
edge  of  facts,  and  shall  be  content  at  present  to  state  a 
single  instance — that  of  Mrs.  Ficklin,  of  Falmouth,  in  the 
State  of  Virginia — a  lady  of  the  highest  social  standing, 
and  resident  in  the  very  neighborhood  where  Mr.  Seddon 
had  been  himself  born  and  reared  to  maturity. 

Mr.  Seddon  had  been,  at  one  time,  for  several  years  a 
member  of  the  Federal  Congress,  and  in  the  tempestuous 


CONFEDERATE   CONGRESS.  367 

period  of  1850  I  well  remember  him  as  a  sectional  fac- 
tionist  of  the  most  extreme  opinions.  In  the  celebrated 
Peace  Conference  of  1861,  he  signalized  himself  by  going 
beyond  all  other  Southern  members  of  that  body  in  the 
demand  of  new  securities  for  slaveholding  rights  in  the 
South.  He  avowed  himself  to  be  wholly  unsatisfied 
with  the  provisions  of  the  Crittenden  Compromise,  and 
proposed  several  amendments  to  the  Constitution  in  ad 
dition  to  the  guarantee  of  slavery  forever  in  all  territories 
south  of  36°  30',  one  of  which  recognized  the  right  of 
peaceable  state  secession,  and  another  of  which  denied  "the 
elective  franchise  and  the  right  to  hold  office,  whether 
federal,  state,  territorial,  or  municipal,  to  all  persons  who 
were,  in  whole  or  in  part,  of  the  African  race."  Just  be 
fore  his  appointment  to  the  Department  of  "War,  he  had 
been  very  badly  defeated  for  a  seat  in  the  Confederate 
House  of  Representatives  in  the  Petersburg  district. 

It  is  by  no  means  just  to  the  two  houses  of  the  Confed 
erate  Congress  to  suppose  that  there  were  no  members 
of  that  -body  who  did  not  discern  the  fatal  tendency  of 
affairs  almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  contest,  and 
who  did  not  strive  energetically  to  arrest  the  march  of 
disastrous  events.  In  both  houses,  I  am  glad  to  recol 
lect  that  there  were  a  considerable  number  of  honest, 
painstaking,  and  able  legislators,  whose  public  experience 
had  been  considerable,  whose  literary  attainments  were 
far  from  being  contemptible,  and  whose  oratorical  pow 
ers  would  have  commanded  respect  almost  any  where. 
That  there  was  too  much  inclination,  both  in  the  Confed 
erate  Senate  and  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  to  suc 
cumb  to  Mr.  Davis's  dictatorial  will,  may  be  admitted, 


368  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

without  attributing  motives,  at  least  to  any  very  large 
number  of  these  individuals,  of  an  unworthy  and  disrep 
utable  character;  and  however  strange  may  have  been 
the  action  of  the  Confederate  legislators  toward  the  close 
of  their  official  career  in  Kichmond,  and  however  blind 
ed  they  must  be  confessed  to  have  shown  themselves  to 
have  been  to  occurrences  which  were  then  almost  on  the 
eve  of  taking  place — the  foreshadowing *s  of  which,  indeed, 
were  beginning  to  be  most  distinct  and  palpable  in  the 
vista  of  the  future — philosophy,  tempered  with  generos 
ity  and  fraternal  sympathy,  must  cheerfully  exonerate 
them  from  all  harsh  and  ill-natured  condemnation.  Let 
all  these  things  now  pass  by  forever ;  they  may  have 
been,  in  the  order  of  Providence,  merely  the  means  sup 
plied  by  Divine  Wisdom  for  the  ultimate  restoration  of 
that  Union — of  rights,  of  feelings,  and  of  energies — estab 
lished  by  the  wisdom  of  the  past,  never  more,  as  we  must 
hope,  to  be  disturbed  or  endangered  by  the  efforts  of  re 
bellious  violence.* 

*  Before  taking  leave  of  the  subject  discussed  above,  I  deem  it  proper 
to  offer,  in  this  unimposing  and  somewhat  unattractive  form,  a  few  mis 
cellaneous  observations,  the  presentation  of  which  will  at  least  serve  to 
gratify  a  reasonable  curiosity  apparently  felt  at  this  time  in  several  quar 
ters  touching  certain  matters  a  good  deal  discussed  of  late. 

1.  The  celebrated  Erlanger  Loan,  the  proposition  to  enlist  in  which 
came  to  Richmond  under  the  sinister  auspices  of  Mr.  John  A.  Slidell, 
seemed  to  a  considerable  number  of  the. members  of  the  Confederate  Con 
gress  to  be  a  speculative  project,  adroitly  set  on  foot  chiefly  for  the  benefit 
of  Messrs.  Slidell,  Benjamin,  &  Co.,  their  aiders  and  abettors  in  the  United 
States  and  in  foreign  countries,  and  we  therefore  struggled  most  earnest 
ly  to  defeat  it  by  every  expedient  known  to  parliamentary  tactics.  By 
the  aid  of  the  celebrated  ten-minutes  rule  and  the  sitting  Avith  closed  doors, 
it  was  finally  carried  by  a  somewhat  meagre  majority  in  the  House  of 


EEL  ANGER  LOAN — CONFISCATION  ACT.  369 

Early  in  the  month  of  December,  1864,  to  all  men  of 
discernment  and  foresight  in  the  city  of  Kichmond,  the 

Representatives.  The  dissentient  members  filed  an  elaborate  protest 
against  this  injudicious  and  unpardonable  measure,  which,  it  is  hoped, 
will  see  the  light  one  of  these  days.  Those  in  Europe  who  are  now  com 
plaining  of  severe  pecuniary  losses  in  consequence  of  having  participated 
in  this  luckless  scheme  of  finance  will  know  whom  to  hold  responsible. 

2.  The  Confiscation  Act  was  opposed  from  the^first  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  a  considerable  number,  including  myself,  alike  upon 
the  ground  of  its  unconstitutionality,  injustice,  and  impolicy.  This  was 
carried  also  in  secret  session,  under  the  abominable  ten-minutes  rule,  which 
rule  I  labored  in  vain,  session  after  session,  to  get  repealed,  but  which  was 
retained  by  the  votes  of  individuals  justly  apprehensive  of  the  censures  of 
an  outraged  constituency,  should  all  the  dark  machinations  which  had 
their  origin  in  this  disreputable  conclave  be  ever  made  known  through  the 
public  journals.  The  special  supporters  of  Mr.  Davis  were  always  ready 
to  go  into  secret  session,  a  thing  very  easy  to  be  effected,  since  a  single 
member  moving  for  it  had  it  in  his  power  to  bring  about  the  immediate 
closing  of  the  doors. 

At  the  very  last  session  of  the  Confederate  Congress  the  Confiscation 
Law  was  made  still  more  cruel  and  onerous,  at  the  instance  of  individu 
als  who  have  since  shown  themselves  more  than  willing  to  save  their  own 
beloved  estates  from  the  forfeiture  to  which  they  were  formerly  so  fero 
ciously  inclined  to  subject  others  who  chanced  to  differ  from  them  consci 
entiously,  both  in  reference  to  the  feasibility  and  propriety  of  the  scheme 
of  revolution.  I  do  not  know  when  my  feelings  were  more  outraged  than 
they  were  only  a  few  weeks  anterior  to  the  vacation  of  my  seat  in  the 
Confederate  Congress,  by  the  heartless  and  unmanly  attempt  to  confiscate 
the  estates  of  all  absentees,  unless  they  had  gone,  or  should  thereafter  go 
abroad  with  the  consent  of  the  government  officials.  This  was  intend 
ed  mainly  to  operate  upon  Dr.  Duncan,  of  New  York,  and  others  of  that 
class,  who  had  been  sojourning  for  several  years  before  the  beginning  of 
the  war  outside  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  who  it  was  known  had 
very  large  possessions  in  said  states.  It  was  confessedly  designed,  like 
wise,  to  reach  the  estates  of  certain  ladies  of  considerable  property  who 
had  thought  proper  to  go  to  New  York,  to  Philadelphia,  or  even  beyond 
the  ocean,  for  the  purpose  cither  of  avoiding  the  horrors  of  internecine 

Q2 


370  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

collapse  of  the  Confederate  cause  appeared  to  be  inevita 
ble.  There  was  only  one  possibility  remaining  that  the 

strife  or  for  the  suitable  education  of  their  infant  children.  In  looking 
back  to  the  past,  I  confess  that  I  am  yet  full  of  surprise  and  indignation 
that  persons  professing  to  be  civilized  men  and  Christians,  should  have 
dared  to  attempt  the  perpetration  of  this  double-damned  iniquity. 

3.  It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Davis  and  his  cabinet  were  originally  op 
posed  to  the  Conscription  Law.     They  were  notoriously  dragooned  by  a 
portion  of  the  Confederate  press  into  a  recommendation  of  its  adoption. 
But  when  this  rank  centralizing  measure  had  been  once  put  in  operation, 
these  gentlemen  were  not  slow  in  perceiving  how,  by  means  of  its  rigid 
enforcement,  and  the  general  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
they  would  be  able  to  put  down  all  opposition  to  their  scheme  of  despotic 
domination.     It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  even  in  the  message  of  Mr. 
Davis,  which  first  recommended  to  the  Confederate  Congress  a  resort  to 
this  anti-republican  expedient,  he  declared  that  there  had  been  no  abate 
ment  whatever  of  the  volunteering  spirit,  which  still,  he  said,  rather  need 
ed  repression  than  stimulation.     How  strange  must  it  not  now  seem  to  all 
reasonable  men,  that  in  a  war  avowedly  commenced  by  the  people  of  the 
South  for  their  own  safety  exclusively,  it  should  have  been  deemed  allow 
able,  even  had  the  volunteering  spirit  then  altogether  disappeared,  to  force 
the  same  people,  under  the  most  harsh  and  dishonoring  penalties,  to  con 
tinue  the  war  after  they  should  have  themselves  grown  weary  of  its  pros 
ecution  ! 

4.  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  notice,  that  nearly  all  the  legislative  enact 
ments  of  the  Confederate  Congress  most  deleterious  in  their  operation 
upon  state-rights  and  popular  freedom  originated  with  ultra  state-rights 
men,  and  ultra  Democrats  in  profession.     One  of  the  most  maniacal  and 
astounding  propositions  brought  forward  in  that  unfortunate  body  was  the 
one  introduced  about  eighteen  months  ago  by  Mr.  Barksdale,  of  Missis 
sippi,  which  was  a  bill  to  establish  martial  law  generally  throughout  the 
Confederate  States.     The  peculiar  relations  existing  between  this  individ 
ual  and  Mr.  Davis  fully  justified  the  presumption  that  this  latter  person 
age  had  been  duly  consulted  before  the  bringing  into  the  legislative  hall 
this  worse  than  political  hydra.     Did  the  Mountain  party  in  the  French 
Revolution  ever  manifest  more  ferocity  than  was  indicated  in  this  move 
ment  ?     Posterity  will  hardly  believe  the  statement,  and  yet  is  it  absolute- 


MARTIAL  LAW — THE   "  OLD  NORTH  STATE."       371 

rushing  tide  of  ruin  could  be  staid  even  for  a  few  weeks. 
It  was  thought  by  a  few  that  the  immediate  restoration 

ly  true  that  the  ultra  secessionists,  who  professed  to  have  brought  on  the 
war  chiefly  to  maintain  the  right  rf  separate  state  secession,  were  the  first  to 
deny  the  existence  of  any  such  right  when  certain  movements  were  un 
derstood  to  be  in  progress  in  North  Carolina  looking  to  peaceful  secession 
from  the  Confederate  States  themselves ;  and  these  persons  urged  most 
vehemently  the  putting  the  whole  country  under  military  law,  in  order  to 
counteract  all  such  attempts  at  withdrawal.  I  well  remember  that  cer 
tain  fiery  zealots  from  the  "Old  North  State"  came  to  Richmond  about 
two  years  ago,  and  openly  urged  the  sending  of  a  military  force  at  once 
into  that  region,  in  order  to  suppress  all  efforts  at  counter-revolution. 
This  course  of  proceeding  was  even  urged  upon  me.  What  response  I 
made  to  these  secession-anti-secession  worthies  I  shall  leave  to  others  to 
conjecture. 

5.  No  one  will  doubt,  ten  years  hence,  that  the  only  chance  for  the 
eventual  success  of  the  Confederate  cause  lay  in  the  immediate  purchase  by 
the  newly-improvised  government  of  all  the  cotton  and  tobacco  of  the  South 
in  the  beginning  of  the  war,  depositing  it  in  safe  and  convenient  locali 
ties,  and  dispatching  certificates  of  deposit,  properly  authenticated,  to  Eu 
rope,  for  the  raising  of  the  requisite  fiscal  means  for  the  prosecution  of 
the  war.  Confederate  paper  had  not  yet  depreciated ;  the  Southern  peo 
ple  had  not  yet  become  disgusted  with  the  Confederate  authorities  at 
Richmond,  and  the  Southern  planters,  it  is  known,  were  still  generally 
willing  to  sell  their  cotton  to  the  government  for  Confederate  notes  and 
bonds  at  from  ten  to  twelve  cents  per  pound.  This  policy  was  warmly 
urged  upon  Mr.  Davis  and  Mr.  Memminger,  neither  of  whom  could  ap 
preciate  its  wisdom ;  nor  did  Mr.  Davis's  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  cease 
to  denounce  and  ridicule  the  project,  denominating  it  "  soup-house  legisla 
tion,"  until  cotton  had  risen  to  nearly  one  dollar  a  pound,  and  Confeder 
ate  paper  was  circulating  at  the  rate  of  four  or  five  to  one,  and  then  this 
grand  minister  of  finance  commenced  buying  most  lustily.  Mr.  Davis,  it 
would  seem,  from  certain  published  letters  of  his,  did  not  cease  to  admire 
and  extol  Mr.  Memminger's  abilities  as  a  financier  up  to  the  close  of  this 
remarkable  struggle. 

G.  Mr.  Pollard,  in  his  "  Third  Year  of  the  War,"  states  that,  after  the 
celebrated  Dahlgren  raid  occurred,  "The  Libby  Prison  was  undermined, 


872  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

of  General  Johnston  to  the  command  of  the  Army  of 
Tennessee,  and  the  granting  of  authority  to  himself  and 

several  tons  of  powder  put  under  it,  and  the  threat  made  that,  if  any  dem 
onstration  on  Richmond  such  as  Dahlgren's  was  ever  again  to  occur, 
the  awful  crime,  the  appalling  barbarity  would  be  committed  of  blowing 
into  eternity  the  helpless  men  confined  in  a  Confederate  prison."  I  had 
before  heard  of  this,  but  only  as  a  vague  and  unauthorized  rumor,  and 
I  regret  now  to  see  this  extraordinary  fact  asserted  by  one  who  is  in 
every  way  so  well  entitled  to  credence.  I  seize  this  opportunity  of  declar 
ing  my  own  oft-avowad  condemnation  of  every  branch  of  this  worse  than 
Hunnic  or  Vandalic  barbarity,  including  raids  on  defenseless  cities,  the 
burning  of  them  at  midnight,  poisoning  in  all  its  forms,  and  all  other  ex 
pedients  not  justified  by  the  rules  of  civilized  war.  While  on  this  subject, 
I  shall  proceed  to  state  some  additional  particulars  alike  in  justice  to  the 
dead  and  the  living.  I  had  known  Colonel  Dahlgren  as  a  genteel  and, 
apparently,  very  amiable  young  man,  several  years  before  the  breaking  out 
of  the  war.  He  was  understood  to  have  been  in  part  brought  up  and  ed 
ucated  at  the  house  of  his  worthy  and  accomplished  uncle,  General  Dahl 
gren,  near  the  city  of  Natchez,  in  the  State  of  Mississippi,  and  was  repeat 
edly  a  visitant,  in  company  with  the  latter,  to  the  city  of  Nashville,  and  to 
the  celebrated  Beersheba  watering-place  in  that  vicinage.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  entertaining  him,  also,  once  or  twice  at  my  own  residence  in 
Nashville.  I  will  not  undertake  to  say  what  changes  the  war  may  have 
wrought  in  his  heart  and  character,  but  I  must  be  permitted  to  doubt 
whether  the  genial  and  kind-mannered  young  man  whom  I  knew  so  well 
five  years  ago  could,  in  so  short  a  time,  have  become  the  horrible  monster 
that  some  over-excited  persons  have  chosen  to  consider  him.  I  have 
never  been  willing  to  believe  that  the  raid  which  he  attempted  on  Rich 
mond  had  for  its  object  a  tithe  of  the  atrocities  which  have  been  charged, 
nor  have  I  ever  regarded  the  evidence  relied  upon  in  support  of  this  view 
of  the  matter  as  entirely  satisfactory.  That  he  intended  to  deliver  the 
Union  prisoners  of  war  then  held  in  Richmond,  destroy,  as  far  as  he 
should  be  able,  all  the  warlike  munitions  and  military  supplies  there  ac 
cumulated,  and  seize  and  carry  off  Mr.  Davis  and  his  cabinet,  can  not  be 
doubted.  That  he  designed  a  general  massacre  of  the  people  of  Rich 
mond  and  the  burning  of  that  goodly  city,  or  the  summary  execution  of 
Mr.  Davis  and  his  official  associates,  I  must  be  permitted  to  doubt.  The 


DAIILGREN'S  RAID.  373 

General  Forrest  to  raise,  if  practicable,  a  hundred  thou 
sand  additional  troops  in  the  states  of  the  South  and 

subject  is  of  a  very  delicate  nature,  and  I  do  not  choose  to  state  here  all 
that  I  suspect  in  regard  to  the  marvelous  publications  made  at  the  time 
in  regard  to  this  extraordinary  and  startling  affair.  After  several  weeks 
had  passed  away,  and  the  public  mind  seemed  to  be  restored  to  its  wonted 
repose,  a  letter  was  addressed  to  me  by  General  Dahlgren  (the  gentleman 
above  referred  to),  dated  at  Atlanta,  Georgia,  where,  with  his  amiable 
family,  he  was  then  residing,  calling  my  attention  in  a  very  touching  man 
ner  to  the  recent  decease  of  his  nephew,  and  to  the  anxious  wish  of  his 
brother,  Admiral  Dahlgren,  that  the  dead  body  of  his  son  should  be  re 
stored  to  him  by  the  Richmond  authorities — the  general  presuming,  as  ho 
stated  in  his  letter,  that  enmity  toward  his  ill-fated  nephew  must  necessa 
rily  cease  ivith  his  death.  This  letter  I  immediately  inclosed  to  Mr.  Davis, 
not  doubting  that  it  would  be  at  least  accorded  a  respectful  consideration 
by  him,  as  the  writer  of  it  had,  very  early  in  the  war,  received  a  high  mili 
tary  appointment  at  his  hands.  What  action  was  taken  upon  the  letter  I 
never  had  the  means  of  knowing.  I  must  hope,  though,  for  the  honor  of  the 
South,  that  Mr.  Davis  and  his  cabinet  were  not  so  shamefully  unmindful 
of  the  principles  of  a  high-toned  humanity  as  to  persist  in  keeping  the  dead 
body  of  this  victim  of  an  unnatural  war  long  after  the  reception  of  this 
impressive  epistle.  If  any  one  shall  blame  me  for  interposing  on  this  oc 
casion  in  behalf  of  the  principles  of  civilized  warfare,  I  shall  submit  to  all 
that  may  be  said  in  reproof  quite  as  patiently  as  I  did  some  two  years  ago 
to  the  harsh  denunciations  and  ingenious  falsifications  to  which  I  was  then 
subjected  for  daring  persistently  to  remonstrate  against  all  needless  mal 
treatment  of  Union  prisoners  of  war.  I  am  neither  ashamed  nor  afraid 
to  declare  that  I  condemn  all  brutal  treatment  of  military  prisoners,  by 
whomsoever  ordered,  countenanced,  or  executed  ;  and  in  a  civil  war,  car 
ried  on  between  human  beings  of  the  same  derivation  and  lineage,  it  is 
doubly  atrocious,  and  I  am  confident  that  in  this  sentiment  I  am  in  per 
fect  accord  with  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  our  whole  national  population. 
As  to  my  conduct  in  endeavoring  to  secure  the  restoration  of  Ulric  Dahl- 
gren's  mortal  remains  to  his  affectionate  and  grief-stricken  father,  he  who 
disapproves  it,  I  am  sure,  could  hardly  have  made  himself  familiar  with 
some  of  the  most  interesting  examples  which  the  page  of  history  holds  in 
preservation,  nor  even  have  read  the  thrilling  account  given  by  the  Father 


374  SCYLLA  AND  CHAKYBDIS. 

West,  with  which  to  face  the  advancing  army  of  Sher 
man,  might,  at  least  for  a  short  time,  save  Richmond 
from  falling  into  the  hands  of  Grant.  Should  this  city 
be  captured,  nobody  doubted  that  the  struggle  for  South 
ern  independence  must  immediately  terminate.  Prodig 
ious  efforts  were  made  by  night  and  by  day  to  procure 
the  restoration  of  Johnston,  but  Mr.  Davis  was  inexorable  ; 
nor  dicl  he  consent  that  this  most  able  and  gallant,  but 
deeply  injured  officer  should  return  to  that  army  of 
which  he  was  the  idol  until  it  was  altogether  too  late  for 
any  abilities  whatever  to  retrieve  the  sinking  cause. 
/f  Under  these  circumstances,  Jjthought  I  saw  that,  unless 
If  some  early  efforts  to  obtain  peace  should  be  made,  a  state 
of  things  might  arise  which  would  be  almost  as  calami 
tous  as  the  permanent  continuance  of  the  war.  I  was  sat 
isfied  that  President  Lincoln  and  his  cabinet,  if  applica 
tion  should  be  made  to  them  in  season,  would  grant 
terms  of  pacification  to  the  South  of  a  far  more  liberal 
and  beneficial  character  than  were  at  all  likely  to  be  ob- 

of  Poetry  himself  of  the  visit  of  the  aged  Priam  to  the  tent  of  the  grim 
Achilles,  who,  cruel  and  relentless  as  he  is  described  to  have  been,  did 
not  refuse  the  exanimate  body  of  Hector  to  parental  imprecations.  Plu 
tarch  tells  us  that  it  was  Hercules,  the  renowned  slayer  of  monsters  and 
remover  of  monstrosities,  who  first  enforced  the  duty  of  humanity  toward 
the  dead ;  and  I  trust  that  the  day  will  never  come  when  a  disregard  of 
this  duty  will  not  be  every  where  recognized  as  an  unmistakable  relic  of 
barbarism.  This  affair  belongs  to  a  class  of  matters  which,  in  the  present 
inflamed  state  of  the  public  mind,  it  is  not  prudent  to  dwell  upon,  but  the 
time  is  coming  when  it  will  be  safe  to  disperse  much  of  the  mystery  which 
now  veils  the  past.  When  that  time  shall  have  arrived,  the  curtain  which 
conceals  certain  transactions  of  enduring  interest  will  be  doubtless  uplift 
ed  by  the  hand  of  some  man  who  will  dare  to  speak  the  truth,  and  the 
whole  tr*uth,  loth  as  to  men  and  their  acts. 


PEACE  PROPOSITIONS  IN  CONFEDERATE  CONGRESS.  375 

tained,  if  nothing  should  be  done  in  the  way  of  procuring 
peace  until  Savannah,  Charleston,  Wilmington,  and  Kich- 
mond  itself  should  have  fallen,  all  of  which,  I  felt  assured, 
after  conferring  with  some  of  the  first  military  men  on 
the  continent,  was  both  proximate  and  certain.  I  am  not 
at  all  ashamed  to  confess  that  I  gave  my  hearty  consent 
to  certain  resolutions  about  this  time  introduced  into  the 
Confederate  Congress  by  several  gentlemen  of  great 
weight  and  intelligence,  proposing  to  divide  the  responsi 
bility  of  the  movement  tending  to  peace  with  the  Pres 
ident.  I  will  even  acknowledge  that  each  one  of  these 
peace  propositions  was  shown  to  me  before  it  was  offered 
in  the  House  of  Kepresentatives.  When  these  had  all 
signally  failed,  mainly  in  consequence  of  the  overwhelm 
ing  executive  influence  arrayed  against  them,  I  resolved 
still  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  stave  off  that  general  ruin 
which  I  could  not  but  regard  as  imminent.  I  consulted 
freely  with  many  of  the  most  enlightened  and  influential 
men  that  the  South  then  contained,  including  three  of 
my  own  valued  colleagues,  Messrs.  Atkins,  Colyar,  and 
Mcnccso,  and  including  also  several  military  men  of  great 
eminence,  and  shaped  my  conduct  accordingly.  The 
fact  was  very  well  known  to  me  that  Mr.  Davis  and  his 
friends  were  confidently  looking  for  foreign  aid,  and  from 
several  quarters.  It  was  stated  in  my  hearing  repeated 
ly,  by  several  special  friends  of  the  Confederate  President, 
that  one  hundred  thousand  French  soldiers  were  expected 
to  arrive  within  the  limits  of  the  Confederate  States  by 
way  of  Mexico ;  while  it  was  more  than  rumored  that  a 
secret  compact,  wholly  unauthorized  by  the  Confederate 
Constitution,  with  certain  Polish  commissioners,  who  had 


376  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

been  lately  on  a  visit  to  Kichmond,  had  been  effected, 
by  means  of  which  Mr.  Davis  would  soon  be  supplied 
with  some  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  additional  troops, 
then  refugees  from  Poland,  and  sojourning  in  several  Eu 
ropean  states ;  which  latter  force,  when  it  should  arrive, 
not  being  levied  under  congressional  authority,  would  be 
completely  at  the  command  of  the  President  for  any  pur 
pose  whatever.  I  was  perfectly  satisfied  that,  should  Mr. 
Davis  even  consent  to  the  sending  of  commissioners  to 
President  Lincoln  to  treat  for  peace,  he  would  so  manacle 
their  hands  by  instructions  as  to  render  impossible  all  at 
tempts  at  successful  negotiation.  It  would  be  quite  in 
my  power  to  show,  did  Pchoose  to  do  so,  that  President 
Lincoln  had  avowed  himself  willing  to  guarantee  to  his 
fellow-citizens  of  the  South  peace  on  most  liberal  terms, 
including  universal  amnesty,  provided  they  would  at  once 
relinquish  their  hostile  attitude  and  return  to  their  an 
cient  allegiance. 

The  following  copy  of  a  pamphlet,  addressed  to  my 
own  political  constituents  in  Tennessee,  and  sent  to  them 
in  the  month  of  March  last  from  the  city  of  London,  is 
here  inserted,  with  a  view  of  showing  what  were  my  ob 
jects,  and  the  objects  of  those  with  whom  I  was  acting  at 
this  period  in  furtherance  of  peace. 

"Golden  Cross  Hotel,  TJie  Strand,  i 
London,  February  24,  1865.        ) 

"  To  the  /Sovereign  People  of  the  State  of  Tennessee: 

"When,  fellow-citizens,  a  little  less  than  two  years  ago, 

"you  demanded  that  I  should  continue  to  represent  you  in 

the  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States,  at  a  moment  when 

I  had  resolved,  for  various  reasons  of  a  most  substantial 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          877 

character,  to  repair  once  more  to  the  walks  of  private  life, 
I  little  thought  that,  in  so  brief  a  space,  I  should,  in  order 
to  commune  with  you  freely  in  regard  to  matters  vitally 
associated  with  your  honor  and  your  happiness,  be  com 
pelled  to  seek  refuge  in  a  foreign  land,  where,  thanks  to 
the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of  the  descendants  of  our  no 
ble  Anglo-Saxon  forefathers,  freedom  of  speech  and  free 
dom  of  the  press  are  yet  inflexibly  maintained,  and  where 
all  valuable  truth,  connected  either  with  politics,  morals, 
science,  or  religion,  may  be  boldly  asserted  and  freely  dif 
fused.  But  snch  is  the  actual  condition  of  things  in  both 
sections  of  my  own  dear  native  country  at  the  present 
time,  that  I  have  found  it  necessary  to  pass  to  another 
hemisphere,  that  I  might  safely  state  to  you  facts,  a  knowl 
edge  of  which  is  indispensable  to  your  future  welfare,  and 
which,  were  I  not  to  communicate  to  you  in  some  form 
or  other,  you.  would  doubtless  regard  me,  and  justly  too, 
as  a  great  official  delinquent. 

uEumor  has  doubtless  some  time  ago  informed  you,  in 
her  own  vague  and  ambiguous  manner,  that  J.have.Jhr 
several  months  past  altogether  disconnected  myself  from 
the  legislative  councils  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  the 
reasons  which  have  influenced  me  in  thus  (voluntarily}  de 
clining  farther  to  represent  a  people  whom  I.  so  much  love 
and  honor,  and  who  have  in  various  ways  placed  me  un 
der  such  profound  obligations  to  them,  it  is  more  than 
probable  have  been,  at  least  in  some  confused  and  dis 
torted  manner,  already  communicated  to  many  of  you. 
It  is  my  purpose  on  this  occasion  to  open  to  your  view 
the  whole  truth  of  the  matter,  in  order  that  I  may  be  thus 
saved  from  the  unmerited  disapproval  of  those  whose  fa- 


378  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

vorable  and  friendly  judgment  I  prize  far  above  the  smiles 
and  commendation  of  all  the  crowned  monarchs  of  earth. 
"When  you  first  deputed  me  to  Kichmond,  nearly  four 
years  ago,  you  well  knew  the  political  principles  by  which 
my  conduct  as  your  representative  would  be  guided,  and 
were  not  at  all  ignorant  of  what  my  action  had  formerly 
been  in  connection  with  all  the  great  public  questions 
which  had  occupied  the  popular  mind  in  the  United 
States  for  more  than  twenty  years  past.  You  knew  that 
in  1850,  that  most  trying  period  in  American  history,  I 
had  proved  in  every  possible  way  my  entire  devotion  to 
the  Federal  Union,  and  my  zealous  and  unbending  oppo 
sition  to  every  thing  in  the  shape  of  sectionalism,  whether 
making  itself  manifest  either  in  the  North  or  in  the  South. 
You  knew  that,  in  harmony  with  the  examples  of  Vir 
ginia  and  North  Carolina,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Missouri, 
and  Arkansas,  I  had,  as  nearly  the  whole  population  of 
Tennessee  besides  had  done,  refused  all  connection  with 
the  perilous  scheme  of  secession,  projected  by  certain  po 
litical  zealots  many  years  ago,  which  had  been  defeated 
(most  signally)  when  an  effort  was  made  to  carry  it  into 
practical  execution  in  the  year  1851,  but  which,  notwith 
standing,  had  been  still  secretly  cherished  in  the  bosoms 
of  its  hot-headed  and  visionary  devotees,  until,  about  six 
years  since,  these  wildly  adventurous  personages  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  period  had  at  last  arrived  when  a 
few  ingenious  expedients,  easy  to  be  devised  and  put  in 
effective  execution  by  such  skillful  architects  of  mischief 
as  they  (very  justly  too)  considered  themselves  to  be, 
would  be  sufficient  to  bring  about,  in  connection  with  the 
presidential  election  of  1860,  the  perfect  fruition  of  all  for 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          379 

which  they  had  so  long  been  struggling.  "When,  without 
any  earnest  solicitation  on  my  part,  you  sent  me  to  Kich- 
mond  as  the  representative  of  your  opinions  and  the  cham 
pion  and  defender  of  your  interests,  you  knew  that  I  had 
as  little  in  common  with  the  boasted  secession  leaders  as 
any  other  public  man  in  the  South;  that  I  had  earnestly 
opposed  all  the  incipient  steps  which  had  led  to  the  fear 
ful  state  of  things  then  existing ;  that  I  had  openly  de 
nounced,  in  every  part  of  the  United  States  which  I  could 
reach,  in  1860,  the  conduct  and  motives  of  nearly  all  the 
prominent  actors  in  the  gloomy  yet  ludicrous  tragi-come- 
dy  of  national  ruin  then  enacting ;  that  I  had  on  numer 
ous  occasions  solemnly  warned  my  Southern  fellow-coun 
trymen  every  where  that  the  breaking  up  of  the  Federal 
Union  would  be  followed  by  a  bloody  civil  war,  by  the 
destruction  of  slavery,  and  the  general  devastation  of  the 
South ;  and,  finally,  that  I  had  never  fully  acquiesced 
in  the  propriety  of  our  entering  into  the  contest  now  in 
progress,  until  the  Southern  senators  and  representatives 
in  the  Federal  Congress  had,  with  a  want  of  wisdom  and 
true  moral  courage  unprecedented  in  the  world's  history, 
ingloriously  vacated  their  seats  in  that  body,  and  (doubt 
less  in  accordance  with  a  plan  previously  agreed  upon 
among  them)  hastened  to  the  city  of  Montgomery,  framed 
a  new  Constitution  of  government,  and  taken  all  the  need 
ful  steps  for  the  bringing  on  of  a  war,  without  the  im 
mediate  commencement  of  which  they  well  knew  their 
scheme  of  disunion  would  turn  out  to  be  altogether  im 
practicable. 

"  Under  such  circumstances,  and  with  the  fullest  knowl 
edge  of  them  on  your  part,  I  repeat,  I  was  dispatched  to 


880  SCYLLA  AND  CIIARYBDIS. 

Kichmond,  and  entered  the  Confederate  Congress  in  the 
month  of  February,  1862.  "Whether  my  course  in  that 
body  since  has  been  honest,  independent,  and  capable,  I 
shall  leave  you  to  judge.  My  general  course  as  a  legisla 
tive  functionary  is  doubtless  already  familiar  to  most  of 
you.  My  early  and  persistent  attempts  to  effect  a  re 
modeling  of  the  wretched  cabinet  by  whom  I  found  Mr. 
Davis  surrounded,  which  attempts  were  crowned  in  the 
end  with  perhaps  as  much  of  success  as  could  have  been 
reasonably  anticipated ;  the  exposition  of  rank  official 
corruption  which  from  time  to  time  I  have  felt  constrain 
ed  to  make ;  the  firm  and  unyielding  opposition  which  1 
have  uniformly  presented  to  the  shameful  efforts  of  Mr. 
Davis  and  his  servitors  to  undermine  the  public  liberties 
and  establish  a  despotism  upon  their  ruins ;  the  zeal  with 
which  I  have  labored  to  supply  your  suffering  soldiers 
in  the  Confederate  armies  with  every  thing  necessary  to 
their  comfort  and  efficiency ;  the  earnest  and  seasonable 
vindication  of  certain  of  our  most  meritorious  military 
commanders  when  heartlessly  and  wickedly  assailed  by 
Mr.  Davis  and  his  employes — the  merits  of  which  com 
manders  are  now  universally  admitted ;  the  untiring  in 
dustry  which  I  have  displayed  in  the  arraignment  of  in 
competent  generals  with  a  view  to  their  dismissal — the 
egregious  demerits  of  whom  no  one  now  denies^-all  these 
things,  I  am  sure,  are  already  fully  known  to  you,  and 
upon  them  I  need  not  now  expatiate.  At  length  (three 
months  ago),  owing  mainly  to  the  gross  and  undeniable 
mismanagement  of  the  military  and  civil  concerns  of  the 
Confederate  States  by  Mr.  Davis  and  his  cabinet  associ 
ates,  abetted  and  sustained  by  an  incompetent  and  servile 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          381 

Congress,  it  became  evident  to  every  man  of  discernment 
with  whom  I  held  intercourse  that  unless  an  early  and 
an  honorable  peace  could  be  speedily  effected,  the  South 
would  be  inevitably  ruined.  Eerceiving  that  Mr.  Davis 
was  bent  upon  a  farther  prosecution  of  the  war,  for  pur 
poses  which  I  knew  to  be  of  a  character  wholly  selfish, 
after  freely  consulting  with  the  best  and  wisest  men  whom 
I  met,  I  resolved  to  lose  no  time  in  introducing  resolutions 
in  the  House  of -Kepresentatives  looking  to  immediate  ac 
tion  on  the  part  of  Congress  itself  with  a  view  to  securing 
a  termination  of  the  war.  These  resolutions  receiving  no 
favor  in  a  body  notoriously,  to  some  extent,  under  execu 
tive  control,  and  other  resolutions,  having  the  same  object 
in  view,  brought  forward  upon  consultation  with  me  by 
several  worthy  members  of  the  House  having  met  with 
a  similar  fate,  I  deemed  it  necessary  to  make  the  some 
what  unusual  experiment  which  will  be  presently  ex 
plained  to  you. 

"  Before  I  enter  farther  into  this  business,  though,  I 
must  be  allowed  to  say,  in  justification  of  my  subsequent 
conduct,  that  the  condition  of  Confederate  affairs  seemed 
to  me  to  be  at  the  moment  almost  hopeless.  The  unwise 
action  of  President  Davis  in  removing  General  Joseph  E. 
Johnston  from  the  command  of  the  Army  of  Tennessee, 
and  sending  General  Hood  upon  an  objectless  errand  to 
the  neighborhood  of  the  city  of  Nashville,  had  evidently 
compromised  most  thoroughly  the  bnly  military  force 
which  could  be  seasonably  made  available  for  the  defense 
of  the  whole  country  west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains 
and  east  of  the  Mississippi  Eiver,  and  had  opened  at  the 
same  time  the  States  of  Georgia,  Alabama,  South  Caro- 


382  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

lina,  and  North  Carolina  to  the  invading  forces  of  the 
United  States,  under  the  command  of  General  Sherman. 
It  was  obvious  to  me,  as  I  openly  declared  in  my  place 
in  Congress — at  a  time,  too,  when  Mr.  Davis  and  his  sim 
ple-hearted  admirers  were  predicting  far  different  results 
— that  the  city  of  Savannah  would  very  soon  fall  into  the 
hands  of  General  Sherman,  and  that  the  capture  of  Charles 
ton,  Branch ville,  Wilmington,  and  even  Eichmond  itself, 
could  not  long  be  delayed.  Meanwhile,  it  was  equally 
evident  that  the  Confederate  government,  in  all  its  depart 
ments,  was  most  rapidly  losing  the  public  confidence,  and 
becoming,  indeed,  positively  odious.  A  series  of  legisla 
tive  enactments  had  passed,  under  strong  executive  pressr* 
ure,  which  left  no  hope  of  the  preservation  of  popular 
freedom  in  the  states  of  the  South,  however  successful  we 
might  be  in  the  prosecution  of  the  pending  war.  Presi 
dent  Davis,  in  his  regular  annual  message,  had  openly  and 
formally  proposed  a  measure,  apparently  very  much  fa 
vored  at  the  time  by  his  supporters  in  the  two  houses  of 
Congress,  as  well  as  by  the  leading  newspapers,  known 
to  be  specially  affiliated  with  his  administration,  which 
virtually  relinquished  the  maintenance  of  what  is  known 
as  African  slavery,  and  had  deliberately  asserted  the  pow 
er  of  the  Confederate  government  to  execute  a  sweeping 
system  of  emancipation  without  even  asking  the  consent 
of  the  states  within  whose  limits  this  system  existed.  The 
Confederate  financial  system  was  clearly  in  a  state  border 
ing  on  collapse.  A  new  Federal  Congress  was  to  come 
into  existence  on  the  4th  of  the  coming  March,  which  it 
was  known  would  be  composed  of  materiel  far  less  favor 
able  to  the  granting  of  just  and  liberal  terms  of  pacifica- 


EFFORTS  TO   OBTAIN  PEACE.  383 

tion  to  the  South  even  than  the  present  Congress,  though 
it  was  also  known  that  this  body  was  proceeding  with  all 
possible  celerity  to  amend  the  Federal  Constitution  itself 
(in  the  precise  manner,  though  prescribed  in  that  instru 
ment)  so  as  to  bring  about  the  immediate  extinction  of 
African  slavery  throughout  all  the  states  constituting  the 
Federal  Union.  I  saw,  most  plainly  and  painfully,  that 
no  time  was  to  be  lost  if  an  honorable  and  advantageous 
settlement  with  the  North  was  desired,  and  I  determined, 
in  pursuit  of  this  object,  not  to  stickle  at  msiQ  formalities 
of  any  sort ;  and,  accprdinglyT  under  the  deliberate  ad 
vice,  yea,  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  some  of  the  most 
patriotic  and  statesmanlike  personages  that  the  Confeder 
ate  States  can  boast,  I  entered  upon  the  experimental  ex 
pedient  already  referred  to,  a  more  particular  account  of 
which  will  now  be  given.  I  set  out  from  Eichmond  about 
the  20th  of  December  just  passed,  in  company  with  my 
wife,  who  had  a  passport  from  the  Richmond  authorities 
empowering  her  to  return  to  our  residence  in  the  city  of 
Nashville.  On  reaching  the  Potomac  River,  in  the  county 
of  Westmoreland,  I  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  to  which  I  now 
ask  your  special  attention : 

"  '  On  the  Bank  of  the  Potomac,  in  sight  of  the  Birthplace  ) 
of  Washington,  December  24,  1864.  > 

"  '  Honorable  Thomas  S.  Bocoche,  Speaker  of  the  House 

of  Representatives : 

"  '  SIR, — In  an  hour  or  two,  if  some  unseen  impedi 
ment  shall  not  arise  to  defeat  the  execution  of  my  pres 
ent  design,  I  shall  cross  the  majestic  river  upon  the  banks 
of  which  repose  the  ashes  of  my  forefathers  for  many 


384  SCYLLA  AND   CHAKYBDIS. 

generations  past,  and  visit  the  city  of  Washington  for 
the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  or  not  it  is  practi 
cable  to  obtain  for  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States  an 
early  and  an  honorable  peace,  after  the  most  bloody  and 
exhausting  struggle  of  arms  which  has  occurred  in  mod 
ern  times,  and  in  all  respects  the  most  deplorable  that  has 
yet  found  record  upon  the  page  of  history.  No  human 
being  save  myself  is  responsible  for  this  movement,  nor 
should  I  have  undertaken  it  but  for  the  notorious  fact 
that  the  two  executive  departments  at  "Washington  City 
and  at  Eichmond  have  relations  with  each  other  which 
render  it  almost  impossible  that  regular  diplomatic  inter 
course  should  occur  between  them,  and  but  for  the  addi 
tional  fact  that  the  two  houses  of  the  Confederate  Con 
gress  seem  to  be  altogether  "unwilling  to  do  any  thing 
calculated  to  bring  about  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  and 
the  restoration  of  peace  and  amity  between  those  who,  in 
my  deliberate  judgment,  should  never  have  allowed  them 
selves  to  be  drawn  into  a  war  so  unnatural,  and  even 
fratricidal  in  its  character — so  destructive  of  the  best  in 
terests  of  civilization  and  Christianity — and  which,  if  it 
shall  continue  to  be  prosecuted  for  four  years  more,  must 
inevitably,  from  the  natural  operation  of  war  itself,  result 
in  the  establishment  of  two  of  the  most  grinding  despot 
isms  that  the  world  has  yet  known.  Should  I  succeed 
in  my  present  undertaking,  my  country  and  the  cause  of 
freedom  will  be  materially  benefited ;  should  I  fail,  dis 
credit,  ridicule,  and  even  contempt  will  be  most  surely 
visited  upon  me  in  full  measure ;  even  many  sensible  and 
good  men  will  recognize  me  as  a  mere  visionary  project 
or  ;  while  the  envious,  the  illiberal,  the  malevolent — the 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          385 

ignoble  time-servers  of  the  period — the  slavish  idolaters 
of  power — will  not  scruple  to  denounce  me  as  a  traitor  to 
what  is  known  as  the  Confederate  Government.  For  all 
this  I  am  prepared,  and  I  am  likewise  prepared  to  under 
go  trial  for  alleged  treason  to  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  should  those  now  occupying  the  seats  of 
authority  in  Washington  City  deem  this  the  sort  of  treat 
ment  which  should  be  awarded  to  a  disinterested  and 
voluntary  embassador  of' peace.  I  hope  that  it  will  not 
appear  either  vainglorious  or  egotistical  in  me  to  declare 
farther  that,  should  it  be  my  fate  to  die  upon  the  scaffold 
in  consequence  of  undertaking  to  execute  a  mission  so 
fully  approved  by  my  own  conscience,  and  so  cordially 
sanctioned  by  some  of  the  wisest  and  most  virtuous  men 
now  upholding  the  Confederate  cause,  I  feel,  notwith 
standing  (though  my  sufferings  will  probably  awaken  but 
little  of  commiserative  sympathy  in  any  quarter),  that,  in 
passing  from  the  stage  of  mortal  existence,  I  shall  be  able 
sincerely  to  exclaim  in  the  language  of  classic  poesy, 

"  '  "Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori." 

I  have  the  honor  to  ask  that  you  will  do  me  the  justice 
to  lay  this  communication  before  the  House  over  which 
you  preside,  in  order  that  such  action  may  be  taken  in  the 
premises  by  the  members  thereof  as  they  shall  deem  ad 
visable.  Should  it  be  decided  by  them  that  expulsion 
from  that  body  is  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  its 
corporate  dignity,  I  beg  you  be  assured  that  Aristides  him 
self  did  not  more  serenely  submit  to  the  doom  of  ostra 
cism  than  I  shall  to  such  punitory  sentence,  at  the  hands 
of  those  with  whom  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  be  associ- 

B 


386  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

ated  for  the  last  three  years  of  unremitted  toil  and  suffer 
ing,  as  they  shall  choose  to  inflict. 

"  'I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  obedient  servant, 

"'H.S.  FOOTE.' 

"  To  this  letter  I  subsequently  appended  a  postscript, 
in  which,  for  reasons  stated  therein,  I  made  known  my 
resignation  of  the  seat  in  Congress  then  occupied  by  me. 
Not  succeeding  in  passing  the  Potomac  Kiver  as  I  had  ex 
pected,  I  proceeded  to  the  neighborhood  of  Occoquan 
Creek,  in  the  county  of  Prince  William,  whence  it  was 
my  intention  to  proceed  to  the  city  of  Washington,  for 
the  purposes  named  in  the  above  letter  to  Mr.  Bococke, 
when  I  was  arrested  by  certain  military  persons  acting 
under  Confederate  authority,  and  was  carried  to  the  city 
of  Fredericksburg,  where  I  remained  in  military  custody 
for  nearly  a  week,  and  was  finally  reduced  to  the  neces 
sity  of  applying  for  a  writ  of 'habeas  corpus  with  a  view  to 
my  enlargement.  You  have  doubtless  heard  that  I  was 
immediately  released  from  prison  by  the  fiat  of  the  learn 
ed  and  eminent  judicial  functionary  before  whom  I  was 
carried,  and  that  I  proceeded  afterward,  without  delay, 
to  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Kepresentatives  in  Congress, 
and  delivered  a  speech  in  vindication  of  my  character 
and  motives  before  a  large  and  evidently  approving  audi 
ence,  with  the  exception  only  of  those  illiberal  and  heart 
less  miscreants  who,  in  my  absence,  had  presumed  to  as 
sail  me,  but  who,  when  they  found  me  once  more  in  their 
presence,  and  ready  to  hold  them,  face  to  face,  to  a  just 
responsibility,  most  disgracefully  shrank  from  every  thing 
like  manly  contest  with  the  individual  whom  they  had, 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          387 

at  the  bidding  of  their  imperial  master,  so  basely  attacked 
with  unjust  and  malignant  charges  which  they  well  knew 
to  be  wholly  unfounded.  On  concluding  this,  the  last 
harangue  certainly  which  I  shall  ever  make  in  that  mob- 
bish  assemblage  known  as  the  Congress  of  the  Confeder 
ate  States,  and  after  drawing  up,  at  the  request  of  numer 
ous  friends,  the  remarks  which  had  fallen  from  me  on  this 
extraordinary  occasion  for  publication,  I  proceeded,  with-* 
out  delay,  to  execute  my  original  scheme  of  seeking  access 
to  the  Washington  authorities.  For  this  purpose,  I  trav 
eled,  under  singularly  uncomfortable  circumstances,  in  the 
coldest  weather  that  has  occurred  in  Virginia  for  many 
years  (being  sometimes  on  rail-cars,  sometimes  on  horse 
back,  and  sometimes  even  on  foot),  until  finally  I  reached 
the  head-quarters  of  Brigadier  General  Devens  of  the 
Federal  Army,  to  whom  I  reported  "rriyselTpunfolded 
frankly  the  objects  of  my  journey  to  Lovettsville,  where 
I  had  found  him  located,  and  asked  for  such  facilities  for 
corresponding  with  those  in  power  in  Washington  City 
as  he  might  feel  justified  in  affording  me.  This  courteous 
officer  at  once  dispatched  a  telegram  to  General  Sheridan, 
his  superior  in  command,  whose  head-quarters "~wefe"m^ 
the  town  of  Winchester,  which  last-named  officer,  with 
out  delay,  after  communicating  with  the  official  author 
ities  in  Washington,  and  acting  under  their  instructions, 
directed  one  of  his  staff  to  call  on  me  at  Lovettsville  and 
receive  any  communication  which  I  might  be  inclined  to 
address  to  official  personages  in  Washington,  and  also  to 
bear  the  same  to  its  place  of  destination.  I  sat  down  im 
mediately,  and,  in  a  hurried  manner,  drafted  the  following 
letter  to  Mr.  Seward : 


388  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

"  '  Lovettsuillc,  January  30,  1865. 

"  l  £^n.Wri^H.JSeiaf$rd1  Secretary' of  State  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  : 

"  (SiR, — I  have  just  received  information  that  I  shall 
be  allowed  to  send  a  communication  addressed  to  the  au 
thorities  in  Washington  City  touching  the*  very  delicate 
and  important  matters  concerning  which  it  is  the  purpose 
of  the  journey  I  am  now  making,  to  confer,  if  permitted 
to  do  so,  with  yourself  and  those  officially  associated  with 
you  in  the  administration  of  governmental  affairs.  I  as 
sure  you  that  this  mode  of  conferring  with  you  is,  in  my 
judgment,  far  preferable,  for  various  reasons,  to  any  oth 
er  that  could  have  been  adopted.  My  object  in  approach 
ing  Washington  you  will  find  very  explicitly  set  forth  in 
a  letter  addressed  by  me  to  the  Hon.  Thomas  S.  Bococke, 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Confed 
erate  Congress  (of  whiph  body  I  have  voluntarily  ceased 
to  be  a  member),  a  copy  of  which  letter  is  herewith  trans 
mitted.  On  reading  the  communication  to  Mr.  Bococke, 
you  will  see  that  I  am  alone  actuated  in  making  this  ef 
fort  to  hold  some  interchange  of  views  with  the  authori 
ties  at  Washington  in  regard  to  the  means  of  terminating 
this  unhappy  war,  by  an  earnest  and  patriotic  desire  for 
peace  and  its  attendant  blessings,  of  which  for  four  years 
past  our  dear  native  land  has  been  so  unhappily  de 
prived. 

"  'To  you,  sir,  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  say  that  I 
had  no  hand  whatever  in  the  origination  of  that  fierce  and 
bloody  contest  now  in  progress.  In  1850,  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  of  which  august  legislative  body  we 
were  both  members,  I  supported,  with  such  moderate 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          389 

ability  as  I  possessed,  but  with  a  zeal  unsurpassed  by 
none,  the  system  of  wise  and  equitable  adjustment  of  the 
then  outstanding  sectional  questions  which  had  generated 
so  much  of  unfraternal  feeling  between  the  North  and 
the  South.  In  1851,  upon  the  very  issue  of  Union  or 
Disunion,  I  had  the  honor  of  defeating  for  the  office  of 
Governor  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  the  personage  now 
known  as  President  of  the  Confederate  States.  From 
that  period  up  to  the  actual  breaking  out  of  hostilities  be 
tween  the  states  of  the  South  and  those  of  the  North, 
though  in  a  private  station,  I  constantly  exerted  myself 
in  every  possible  mode  to  suppress  sectional  irritation, 
and  to  prevent  those  fearful  consequences  we  are  all  now 
so  painfully  realizing.  To  the  Kansas- Nebraska  Bill,  the 
Lecompton  Constitution  Bill,  and  all  kindred  measures  cal 
culated  to  awaken  sectional  strife,  I  presented  a  steady 
and  unyielding  opposition.  To  the  proposal  to  reopen 
the  African  slave-trade,  agitated  in  certain  localities  of 
the  South  a  year  or  two  before  the  commencement  of  the 
war,  I  presented,  as  some  doubtless  yet  remember,  some 
what  more  than  a  calm  and  decided  opposition.  I  had 
no  hand  whatever  in  1860  in  giving  to  the  Democratic 
presidential  platform  a  sectional  and  aggressive  aspect,  be 
lieving  as  I  did  that  such  a  measure  was  likely  to  be  pro 
ductive  of  disunion  and  civil  war,  and  that  it  was  more 
certain,  if  possible,  to  uproot  and  to  destroy  the  domestic 
institutions  of  the  South,  as  Henry  Clay  (that  august 
apostle  of  peace  and  union)  had  so  emphatically  predicted 
in  your  presence  and  mine  in  1850.  When  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  elected  to  the  presidency  in  1860, 1  was  not  one  of 
those  who  thought  and  said  that  this  occurrence  justified 


390  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

the  attempt,  immediately  made  by  the  secession  managers, 
to  break  up  the  Federal  Union.  I  was  not  a  member  of 
the  celebrated  Montgomery  Convention,  nor  in  the  least 
degree  a  party  to  the  counsels  in  which  that  ill-starred  as 
semblage  originated. 

" '  Until  war  was  already  raging,  and  until  Virginia, 
the  venerated  mother  of  states,  had  resolved  to  enter  into 
that  war,  Tennessee  and  Tennesseeans  declined  all  con 
nection  with  what  they  deemed  and  have  ever  deemed 
an  unwise  and  dangerous  enterprise;  and  when  we  did 
(either  wisely  or  unwisely)  finally  resolve  to  take  part  in 
this  fearful  conflict,  we  did  so  with  most  painful  reluc 
tance,  and  chiefly,  as  we  honestly  avowed  at  the  time,  in 
defense  of  our  brethren  of  the  cotton-growing  states,  ex 
posed,  as  we  saw  them  most  plainly  to  be,  to  the  danger 
of  being,  in  a  few  weeks  or  months  at  most,  overrun  and 
utterly  ruined.  As  a  member  of  the  Confederate  Con 
gress  for  three  years  past,  though  doing  all  in  my  power, 
as  I  am  not  ashamed  to  confess,  to  place  in  the  hands  of 
President  Davis  all  the  means  of  defending  the  South 
against  the  large  invading  armies  sent  within  her  con 
fines,  yet  never  did  I  give  a  single  vote  calculated  unduly 
to  protract  hostilities  or  to  impart  needless  asperity  to  the 
pending  conflict.  I  had  no  hand  whatever  in  fixing  a 
system  of  forcible  conscription  upon  the  people  and  states 
of  the  South,  or  in  confiscating  the  estates  of  those  who 
did  not  choose,  for  conscientious  reasons  (which  I  could 
not  help  appreciating),  to  bear  arms  against  the  govern 
ment  established  by  their  venerated  fathers.  Not  a  ses 
sion  of  the  Confederate  Congress  has  passed  during  which 
I  have  not  done  all  in  my  power  to  bring  about,  if  possi- 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          391 

ble,  a  termination  of  the  war  alike  honorable  to  both  the 
parties  to  it. 

"  'About  two  months  ago,  when  I  became  thoroughly 
satisfied  that  Mr.  Davis  and  his  associates  were  bent  on 
establishing  a  despotism  under  foreign  protection,  and  had 
determined  never  to  consent  to  any  peace  except  one 
founded  on  the  overthrow  of  republican  institutions,  I  re 
solved,  in  the  most  open  manner  too,  to  denounce  the 
conspirators  against  the  freedom  of  my  fellow-citizens  of 
the  South  and  the  heartless  betrayers  of  the  most  sacred 
of  earthly  trusts,  to  resign  my  seat  in  the  Confederate 
Congress,  and  seek  refuge  in  some  foreign  land,  where  I 
might  in  quiet  mourn  over  the  ruin  of  my  country  and 
the  desolation  of  a  land  once  the  abode  of  liberty,  of  pros 
perity,  and  of  all  earthly  felicity.  I  thought  it  my  duty, 
though,  ere  I  should  forever  abandon  a  country  and  a 
people  so  dear  to  my  affections,  to  make  one  more  man 
ly  and  earnest  effort  for  an  early  and  honorable  peace. 
Hence  my  present  attitude. 

"  'I  now  have  the  honor  to  say,  for  myself  and  for  a 
large  number  of  the  most  weighty  and  influential  states 
men  that  the  South  contains,  and,  as  I  have  good  reason 
to  believe,  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  also  of  a  very 
large  majority  of  the  sovereign  people  of  the  Southern 
States,  whether  in  or  out  of  the  Confederate  armies,  that 
.we,  the  Conservatives  of  the  South,  are  ready  and  anx 
ious  to  enter  once  more  into  fraternal  union  with  our  fel 
low-citizens,  of  the  North ;  that  we  are  resolved,  if  an  op 
portunity  of  doing  so  honorably  shall  be  afforded  us,  to 
withdraw  at  once  from  all  political  connection  with  the 
government  now  located  in  the  city  of  Kichmond,  and  to 


392  •  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

place  ourselves  and  all  we  hold  dear  once  more  under  the 
protection  of  the  flag  of  our  fathers. 

"  '  No  one  knows  better  than  I  do  that  no  such  pacifi 
cation  as  that  which  I  now  propose  can  ever  come  from 
Mr.  Davis.  His  official  position  and  his  devotion  to  his 
own  selfish  schemes  of  individual  aggrandizement  alike 
forbid  it.  But  let  President  Lincoln  issue  a  formal  proc 
lamation,  addressed  to  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States, 
offering  to  them  complete  amnesty  for  the  past,  and  a  full 
restoration  of  the  constitutional  rights  which  they  former 
ly  enjoyed,- and  they  will  immediately  hold  Conventions 
in  all  of  the  said  states  and  vote  themselves  back  into  the 
Federal  Union,  calling  home  their  troops  at  once,  and 
leaving  Mr.  Davis  to  enjoy,  as  he  shall  be  able  to  do,  the 
despotism  which  he  has  established,  together  with  such 
foreign  protection  for  himself  and  his  ignoble  projects  as  it 
may  be  in  his  power  to  secure. 

"  'There  seems  to  me  to  be  but  one  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  thus  bringing  this  war  to  a  close,  and  that  stands 
connected  with  the  slavery  question — a  question  which 
has  undoubtedly  assumed,  as  was  reasonable  to  have  been 
expected,  several  new  aspects  during  the  present  war.  I 
should  hope  that,  in  consideration  of  the  manifold  advan 
tages  of  such  a  peace  as  I  have  proposed  (including,  of 
course,  the  future  enforcement  of  what  is  known  as  the 
Monroe  doctrine),  our  brethren  and  fellow-citizens  of  the 
North  would  be  inclined,  through  the  action  of  the  Fed 
eral  government,  to  deal  with  us  liberally  and  kindly. 
Consider,  if  you  please,  that  the  fate  of  slavery  has  been 
sealed  by  the  operation  of  the  war  itself;  that  Maryland 
is  now  a  free  state,  and  Missouri  likewise;  that  Ken- 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          393 

tucky, Virginia,  Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  and  Arkansas 
are  sure  in  a  few  years,  by  their  own  voluntary  action,  to 
adopt  a  system  of  emancipation ;  and  that,  in  all  proba 
bility,  before  the  close  of  the  present  century,  slavery  will 
nowhere  exist  upon  the  continent.  Can  you  not  afford, 
then,  to  leave  it  where  the  Federal  Constitution  left  it  ? 

11 '  If,  though,  circumstances  exist  which  render  such  a 
plan  of  settlement  impossible,  then  I.  am  prepared  to  say, 
in  behalf  of  those  whom  I  represent,  that  we  will  agree 
to  such  a  change  of  the  Federal  Constitution  as  will  se 
cure  the  entire  extinction  of  slavery  on  the^rs^  day  of 
January,  1900,  and  which  will  provide  also  for  the  free 
dom  of  all  persons  of  African  blood  who  shall  be  born 
after  \h&  first  day  of  January,  1890. 

"  'I  shall  not,  in  this  very  hasty  letter,  enlarge  upon 
this  scheme  of  settlement,  or  undertake  to  point  out  all 
the  happy  consequences  which  appear  to  me  as  likely  to 
result  from  its  adoption.  Nor  shall  I  undertake  to  de 
picture  the  glory  which  will  be  assuredly  achieved  by 
those  who  shall  be  prominently  concerned  in  the  con 
summation  thereof — UI  spealc  unto  wise  men;  judge  ye  what 
I  say!" 

"  i  In  conclusion,  I  have  to  declare  that  if,  as  I  have 
never  heretofore  believed,  but  as  has  been  by  certain  per 
sons  diligently  inculcated  in  the  South,  subjugation,  in 
stead  of  fraternal  pacification,  is  intended  by  those  who 
now  bear  rule  in  Washington  City,  I  shall  have  to  ask 
that  (provided  always  you  do  not  desire  to  try  me  as  a 
criminal  offender,  an  ordeal  not  altogether  unanticipated 
by  me,  and  from  which  assuredly  I  shall  not  shrink)  you 
will  be  kind  enough  to  send  me  such  a  passport  as  will 

R2 


SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

enable  me  to  go  to  some  foreign  country  without  delay, 
being  utterly  unwilling  to  witness  the  unimaginable  hor 
rors  of  which  the  present  year  of  this  most  unnatural  and 
impolitic  war  can  not  but  be  productive. 

"  '  If  what  I  have  here  suggested  (necessarily  in  a  most 
hurried  and  imperfect  manner)  should  have  the  good  for 
tune  to  command  a  favorable  consideration,  I  stand  ready 
to  make  such  farther  revelations,  both  as  to  facts  and  per 
sons,  as  will  leave  no  doubt  upon  the  minds  of  President 
Lincoln  and  his  constitutional  advisers  that  ample  facil 
ities  exist  for  the  bringing  about,  in  the  short  period  of 
forty  days  too,  such  a  counter-revolution  as  is  above  refer 
red  to.  All  that  I  desire  is  to  receive  assurance  that  the 
information  which  I  deem  it  proper,  for  reasons  alike  of 
prudence  and  of  honor,  to  hold  for  the  present  in  reserve, 
if  imparted,  will  conduce  to  the  restoration  of  peace  and 
the  re-establishment  of  the  Federal  Union,  in  a  manner 
and  upon  terms  consistent  with  the  present  honor  and 
future  safety  of  the  South,  and  I  will  at  once  proceed  to 
make  full  disclosures. 

" '  Hoping  soon  to  receive  some  response  to  this  com 
munication,  I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  obedient  serv 
ant,  H.  S.  FOOTE.' 

"  In  about  five  days  after  the  transmission  of  the  above 
letter  to  Mr.  Seward,  I  received,  at  the  hands  of  the  mili 
tary  officer  through  whom  I  had  addressed  him,  the  fol 
lowing  reply : 

(Memorandum) 

"  'Department  of  State,  Washington,  January  31,  1865. 

"'A  communication   addressed  to  the  Secretary  of 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          395 

State  by  Henry  S.  Foote,  an  insurgent  who  has  volunta 
rily  come  within  the  military  lines,  and  is  held  in  custody 
within  Major  General  Sheridan's  command,  has  been  re 
ceived  and  has  been  submitted  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  Any  farther  information  which  the  pris 
oner  may  think  it  proper  to  impart  to  the  government 
may  be  communicated  in  the  same  manner  as  the  com 
munication  which  is  now  acknowledged. 

11 '  Major  General  Sheridan  will,  if  Mr.  Foote  shall 
choose,  pass  him  back  within  the  insurgent  lines,  or  will 
send  him  forward  to  Major  General  Dix  at  New  York, 
who  will  be  instructed  to  allow  him  to  pass  without  un 
necessary  delay  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States,  not  to  return  during  the  continuance  of  the  war 
without  leave  from  this  Department. 

(Signed),        "  '  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD.' 

"  On  perusing  this  letter  of  Mr.  Seward,  I  came  at  once 
to  the  conclusion  (I  hope  without  sufficient  ground)  that 
nothing  that  I  could  in  addition  say,  either  to  himself  or 
President  Lincoln,  could,  in  the  delicate  and  embarrass 
ing  situation  in  which  they  found  themselves,  at  all  avail 
in  stopping  the  deplorable  effusion  of  precious  American 
blood — the  terrible  destruction  of  property  and  national 
character,  and  the  extinction  of  the  once  fondly-cherished 
confraternal  ties  between  those  who  ought  yet  to  be 
friends  and  brethren,  both  in  feeling  and  in  action,  and-I 
therefore  promptly  announced  my  intention  to  proceed 
at  once  to  the  city  of  New  York  and  report  myself  to 
General  Dix,  as  Mr.  Seward's  letter  directed.  I  set  out 
accordingly  for  the  Empire  City  of  the  North,  accompa- 


396  SCYLLA   AND   CHARYBDIS. 

nied  by  the  gentlemanly  young  military  officer  already 
referred  to.  .  "We  arrived  there  on  the  evening  of  the  5th 
instant,  and  next  morning  called  on  General  Dix  at  his 
head-quarters,  who  received  me  with  marked  respect  and 
affability.  I  found  him  fully  advised  of  the  correspond 
ence  (if  it  could  be  really  so  called)  which  had  been  tak 
ing  place  between  Mr.  Seward  and  myself,  and  of 'the 
privilege  which  had  been  accorded  me  of  going  abroad, 
if  I  chose  to  do  so.  Intermediate  reflection,  though,  had 
satisfied  me  that  it  was  my  duty,  as  a  true  friend  to  peace, 
and  as  a  faithful  agent  of  those  at  whose  bidding  I  had 
taken  it  upon  myself  to  become  a  mediator  between  the 
parties  contestant,  to  make  one  more  effort  for  the  attain 
ment  of  the  desired  end.  I  therefore  requested  General 
Dix  to  forward  the  following  additional  letter  to  Mr. 
Seward : 

"  'New  York,  February  6,  1865. 

"  *  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Reward,  Secretary  of  State: 
"  '  SIR, — Your  communication  of  the  31st  -ultimo,  head 
ed  "Memorandum"  reached  me  at  Lovettsville,  in  the 
State  of  Virginia,  on  the  day  before  yesterday.  There 
was  something  in  the  style  and  spirit  of  that  document 
which  I  confess  discouraged  me  not  a  little,  and  induced 
me  almost  to  despair  of  being  able  to  attain  any  bene 
ficial  end  by  communicating  with  you  farther  upon  the 
very  interesting  subject  to  which  I  had  previously  called 
your  attention.  But,  on  farther  reflection,  in  considera 
tion  of  the  vast  public  interests  involved,  and  the  fearful 
consequences  which  are,  in  my  judgment,  sure  to  result 
from  the  farther  prosecution  of  the  pending  war,  I  have 
concluded,  with  your  consent,  to  offer,  in  this  form,  a  few 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          397 

additional  observations,  which  will,  I  trust,  be  at  least  re 
ceived  in  the  disinterested  and  patriotic  spirit  in  which 
they  are  presented. 

" ' Though  it  is  true  that  I  am  at  this  moment  a  "pris 
oner"  (a  voluntary  one)  in  the  hands  of  the  government 
with  which  you  stand  so  honorably  connected,  and  in  the 
establishment  of  which  my  own  venerated  ancestors  par 
ticipated,  yet  it  is,  as  I  conceive,  neither  just  nor  gracious 
to  refer  to  me  as  being  at  present  "an  insurgent"  seeing 
that,  as  I  have  heretofore  endeavored  to  explain,  I  am  no 
longer,  in  any  sense,  a  participant  in  the  war  now  waging 
against  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  have, 
some  time  ago,  voluntarily  and  deliberately  disconnected 
myself,  for  the  gravest  and  most  satisfactory  reasons  (pub 
licly  assigned  at  the  time),  from  the  monstrous  and  intol 
erable  despotism  now  existing  in  the  city  of  Kichmond 
under  the  name  of  the  government  of  "the  Confederate 
States  of  America."  I  beg  you  to  be  assured  that  no  one 
could  be  more  fully  advised  than  I  am  that  Mr.  Davis, 
and  those  officially  associated  with  him,  have  most  shame 
lessly  and  criminally  abandoned,  and  trampled  under 
foot,  all  the  principles  and*  objects  for  the  maintenance 
or  furtherance  of  which  they  had  heretofore  avowed  to 
the  world  that  it  had  become  necessary  to  secede  from  the 
Federal  Union,  and  in  the  absence  of  which  pretext  for  a 
measure  so  insane  and  ruinous  it  is  certain  they  would 
never  have  been  able  to  delude  a  generous  and  confiding 
people  into  a  conflict  so  palpably  unequal  in  its  character, 
with  a  government,  too,  beneath  the  paternal  shelter  of 
which  all  their  rights  and  liberties  had  been  so  long  and 
so  efficiently  protected  and  guaranteed.  I  should  not 


398  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

now  be  addressing  you  did  I  not  know  of  a  verity  that 
state-rights  and  state  sovereignty  no  longer  exist  south 
of  the  Potomac  Eiver;  that  in  that  once  happy  but  now 
forlorn  region  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  the  press, 
the  right  of  jury  trial,  and,  in  fact,  all  the  muniments  of 
civil  liberty  most  highly  prized  in  countries  actually  free, 
are  completely  prostrated ;  that  corruption  and  imbecil 
ity,  sit  grimly  enthroned  where  it  was  once  fondly  hoped 
that  virtue  and  ability  would  exercise  supreme  sway,  and 
that  a  selfish,  hypocritical,  and  tyrannical  executive  chief, 
unblushingly  sanctioned  and  sustained  by  a  servile  and 
incompetent  Congress,  has  well-nigh  deprived  a  high-spir 
ited  and  eminently  chivalrous  people  of  all  ground  of 
hope  as  to  their  own  future  safety  and  happiness.  The 
egregious  mismanagement  of  all  the  departments  of  gov 
ernment  ;  the  general  spread  of  demoralization  in  all  of 
ficial  circles ;  a  series  of  the  most  appalling  reverses,  the 
greater  number  of  which  it  is  evident  might,  with  the 
proper  exercise  of  circumspection  and  energy,  have  been 
easily  avoided,  and  nearly  every  one  of  which  is  directly 
traceable  to  the  unpardonable  intermeddling  of  a  vain 
and  obstinate  president,  who,  in  some  unaccountable  way, 
has  become  possessed  of  the  unfounded  notion  that  he  is 
himself  a  man  of  superior  military  capacity ;  the  unsea 
sonable  and  injudicious  displacement  of  military  com 
manders  of  real  ability  and  high  merit  in  other  respects, 
to  make  way  for  others  who  had  but  little  claim  to  re 
spect,  save  such  as  may  arise  from  their  known  devotion 
to  him  whose  smile  is  the  sure  guarantee  of  promotion, 
and  whose  frown  is  the  certain  precursor  of  official  de 
gradation — these  causes,  conjoined  with  a  multitude  of 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          399 

others  quite  easy  to  be  specified,  a  detail  of  which  on  this 
occasion  is  not  at  all  necessary,  have  at  length  compelled 
the  people  of  the  Confederate  States,  alike  in  the  army 
and  out  of  it,  to  relinquish  all  hope  of  separate  independ 
ence  under  the  management  of  Mr.  Davis,  who  is,  not 
withstanding,  fixed  upon  them  irremovably  for  the  next 
three  years  by  the  Constitution  itself  to  which  he  owes 
his  authority. 

"  '  Indeed,  I  am  fully  prepared  to  establish  the  fact,  by 
testimony  of  the  most  reliable  character,  that  a  large  ma 
jority  of  the  more  enlightened  citizens  of  the  South  have 
at  last  come  to  the  conclusion,  in  which  I  confess  that  I 
do  for  one  most  fully  concur,  that,  should  they  be  ever 
so  successful  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war  now  in  prog 
ress,  they  would  find  themselves  at  the  end  of  it  an  en 
slaved  and  wretched  people,  and  that  Southern  independ 
ence,  at  one  time  so  thoughtlessly  coveted  and  so  zealous 
ly  striven  for,  would  be,  if  attained,  precisely  the  most 
deplorable  calamity  which  could  possibly  befall  them ; 
since  they  deem  it  now  most  clear  that  separate  independ 
ence  would  of  necessity  imply  continuous  border  wars ; 
the  keeping  on  foot  of  twa  antagonist  standing  armies 
for  protection  against  territorial  invasion,  constantly  in 
such  a  condition  of  things  to  be  apprehended ;  and  ul 
timately,  perchance  even  very  soon,  the  establishment 
of  two  of  the  most  relentless  despotisms  that  have  ever 
existed.  These  melancholy  views,  I  assure  you,  have  be 
come  of  late  very  general  in  the  South,  where  even  the 
very  name  of  secession  has  recently  grown  odious,  and 
where  Davis  and  his  wicked  comrades  in  mischief  are 
fast  coming  to  be  hated  and  distrusted ;  where,  indeed,  a 


400  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

complete  counter-revolution  would  be  inevitably  seen  to 
occur  immediately,  could  it  be  in  some  way  or  other  sat 
isfactorily  ascertained  that  it  was  not  really  the  intention 
of  President  Lincoln  and  his  constitutional  advisers  to 
subjugate  and  enslave  those  with  whom  they  are  now  con 
tending  in  arms.  Let  me  here  repeat,  that  if,  with  the 
ostensible  consent  of  the  states  and  people  of  the  North, 
President  Lincoln  should  conclude  to  issue  such  a  procla 
mation  as  I  have  heretofore  described,  tendering  amnesty, 
gradual  emancipation,  etc.,  etc.,  the  influential  and  effi 
cient  public  men,  in  behalf  of  whom  I  am  empowered  to 
speak,  and  in  accordance  with  whose  earnest  solicitation 
I  am  now  acting,  will  undertake  to  bring  about  such  coun 
ter-revolution  at  once,  by  conventional  action,  against  the 
Davis  despotism,  and  guarantee  the  restoration  of  Federal 
authority,  thus  putting  an  end  to  this  most  grievous  and 
sanguinary  struggle,  and  restoring  once  more  cordial  am 
ity  and  good-fellowship  among  those  from  whose  bosoms 
these  sentiments  have  been  long  since  banished. 

"  'I  beseech  you  not  to  be  persuaded  to  doubt  the  ef 
fectual  execution  of  the  pledge  here  given  by  the  fact 
that  President  Davis  and  his  policy  are  at  present  appar 
ently  sustained  by  a  majority  in  the  two  houses  of  the 
Confederate  Congress,  which  bodies  are  not,  and  never 
have  been,  and  never  now  can  be,  the  reliable  exponents 
of  Southern  public  sentiment.  I  solemnly  aver  that  in 
the  declaration  I  am  now  making  I  am  in  unison  with 
the  judgments  and  wishes  of  the  great  mass  of  the  South 
ern  people,  who  will  cordially  unite  with  me,  upon  the 
terms  and  conditions  specified,  in  restoring  at  once  the 
authority  of  the  Federal  government  over  all  Southern 
territory. 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          401 

"  '  The  late  experiment  at  pacification  reported  to  have 
been  essayed  upon  the  soil  of  the  "Ancient  Dominion" 
by  Messrs.  Stephens,  Campbell,  and  Hunter,  should,  in  my 
judgment,  by  no  means  discourage  the  true  friends  of 
peace.  Could  it,  indeed,  have  been  reasonably  expected 
that  these  worthy  gentlemen,  however  abounding  in  qual 
ifications  of  every  sort,  and  however  desirous  to  behold 
an  early  termination  of  the  war  upon  almost  any  honora 
ble  terms  (as  I  chance  to  know  that  at  least  two  of  them 
do),  would  be  permitted  by  Mr.  Davis  to  reach  the  desig 
nated  place  of  conference  except  under  such  stringent  in 
structions  as  would  necessarily  prevent  them  from  either 
proposing  or  acceding  to  any  terms  of  pacification  which 
could  by  any  possibility  in  the  least  degree  compromise 
the  position  and  plans  of  their  selfish  and  intriguing  prin 
cipal  ?  Could  Mr.  Davis  himself  be  expected  to  consent, 
through  Messrs.  Stephens,  Campbell,  and  Hunter,  to  any 
terms  of  settlement  which  would  forever  do  away  with 
the  soi-disant  Confederate  government,  and  thus  bring  to 
naught  his  long-cherished  notions  of  imperial  greatness  ? 

"  '  You  will  allow  me  to  suggest  farther,  that  it  seems 
to  me  that  it  would  have  been  not  less  unreasonable  to 
expect  that  the  ultra  pro-slavery  men  of  the  South,  Mr.  Da 
vis,  Mr.  Hunter,  et  id  omne  genus,  who  had  so  long  and  so 
fiercely  made  the  universal  establishment  and  mainte 
nance  of  African  slavery  throughout  all  the  vacant  terri 
tory  of  the  old  Union  not  only  a  test  of  party  fidelity, 
but  a  sine  qua  non  also  to  the  continued  existence  of  that 
very  Union  itself,  and  who  had  so  recently,  and  with  such 
a  fanciful  ambition  for  scenic  display,  abdicated  their 
seats  in  the  Federal  Congress  avowedly  because  they  fear- 


402  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

ed  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  to  the  presidency,  though 
in  a  perfectly  constitutional  mode,  would  in  some  way 
compromise  their  favorite  institution,  would  now  be  found 
acquiescing  with  any  thing  like  a  graceful  and  becoming 
readiness  in  the  overthrow  of  slavery  in  all  the  states  of 
the  South,  under  circumstances  which  will  more  than 
justify  the  future  historian  of  this  unhappy  struggle  in 
fixing  upon  themselves  the  responsibility  of  having  initi 
ated  measures  which  have  alone  generated  the  sad  neces 
sity  of  submitting  to  a  fate  which  but  a  limited  amount 
of  foresight  and  practical  good  sense  would  have  so  easily 
averted. 

" '  The  sovereign  people  of  the  South,  in  behalf  of 
whom  I  am  now  addressing  you,  do,  on  the  other  hand, 
however  painfully,  recognize  the  existing  condition  of 
things  as  one  from  which,  though  they  had  no  special 
agency  in  producing  it,  there  are  no  present  means  of  es 
cape  ;  and  being  therefore  prepared  to  acquiesce  in  it 
with  something  of  a  philosophic  cheerfulness,  and  with 
that  sober  and  practical  intelligence  for  which  they  have 
been  ever  heretofore  distinguished,  are  at  this  moment 
casting  about  for  some  means  of  alleviating  the  discom 
forts  and  inconveniences  which  have  been  brought  upon 
them  by  instrumentalities  which,  in  their  operation,  seem 
more  or-  less  to  resemble  the  mysterious  dispensations  of 
an  overruling  Providence.  The  appeal  for  peace,  then,  on 
the  part  of  President  Lincoln,  as  Pater  Patrice,  should  be 
to  the  people  themselves,  and  in  the  most  direct  manner 
possible,  whose  response  thereto  I  am  certain  would  be 
such  as  I  am  persuaded  you  do  really  so  anxiously  de 
sire. 


EFFORTS  TO   OBTAIN  PEACE.  403 

" '  I  know  that  it  is  urged  by  certain  persons  in  the 
North — in  the  same  manner,  by-the-by,  as  a  similar  view, 
mutatis  mutandis,  is  presented  by  certain  vaporing  news 
paper  scribblers  and  half-witted  legislative  declaimers  in 
the  Confederate  Congress — that  Grant,  and  Sherman,  and 
the  valiant  armies  under  their  command  are  the  best  and 
only  reliable  pacificators.  Indeed,  I  can  not  think  so. 
These  distinguished  generals  (and  I  am  not  one  of  those 
who  have  undervalued  the  capacity  of  either  of  them) 
may  perchance  be  able  to  overrun  and  devastate  the 
whole  South ;  they  may  find  it  in  their  power  to  estab 
lish  absolute  military  rule  throughout  the  entire  length 
and  breadth  of  the  Confederate  States.  But  will  this,  I 
pray  you,  be  the  restoration  of  the  Union  of  our  fathers? 
Will  this  redintegrate  amicable  feelings  between  the  peo 
ple  of  the  North  and  the  people  of  the  South?  Will 
this  secure  permanent  concord  between  the  two  sections  ? 
Will  this,  in  short,  secure  such  a  hearty  and  perfect  com 
bination  and  commixture  of  all  the  energies  and  resources 
of  the  great  Anglo-American  family  on  that  noble  con 
tinent  which  God  has  so  evidently  allotted  to  them  as 
their  own  destined  inheritance,  as  will  enable  them  to  real 
ize,  in  all  its  vividness  and  plenitude,  the  consummation 
of  what  our  venerable  friend,  General  Cass,  in  former 
days,  was  accustomed  so  solemnly  and  so  significantly  to 
indicate,  when  he  spoke  so  inspiringly  of  what  he  called 
the  "  manifest  destiny"  of  our  noble  and  heroic  race?  Let 
me  ask  of  you  whether  it  would  be  quite  politic — wheth 
er  it  would  be  altogether  just — whether  it  would  be  gen 
erous  needlessly  and  wantonly  to  mortify  the  lofty  and 
manly  pride,  and  cruelly  extinguish  or  even  enfeeble  the 


404  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

noble  self-respect  of  a  high-minded  and  thrice-valorous 
people  ?  Indeed,  indeed,  sir,  I  can  not  at  all  conjecture 
how  any  man  worthy  to  be  recognized  as  a  statesman,  or 
who  aspires  to  the  honor  of  being  classed  among  enlight 
ened  Christian  philanthropists  even,  can  possibly  respond 
to  all  of  these  important  interrogatories  save  with  a  most 
emphatic  negative. 

"  '  You,  sir,  placed  me  under  special  and  lasting  obliga 
tions  by  your  kind  and  gentlemanly  civilities  to  my  wife 
when,  on  a  late  occasion,  it  was  her  fortune  to  visit  Wash 
ington  City  as  a  refugee  from  oppression,  under  circum 
stances  not  a  little  painful  and  embarrassing.  For -this 
accept  my  cordial  thanks.  Should  a  bounteous  Provi 
dence  inspire  you  with  such  liberal  and  manly  views  as, 
when  fully  acted  out,  shall  rescue  this  once-happy  repub 
lic  from  the  multiplied  horrors  of  civil  war,  you  will  earn, 
and  will  doubtless  receive  also,  the  grateful  homage  of 
countless  generations  yet  unborn,  and, even  those  who 
now  hate  and  revile  you  will  be  heard  (if  I  can  at  all  ac 
curately  descry  the  future)  to  bless  and  to  honor  your 
name. 

"  '  Before  concluding,  I  hope  you  will  pardon  me  for 
saying  that  while,  for  various  reasons,  it  would  be  alto 
gether  repugnant  to  my  sense  of  duty  to  do  any  thing 
injurious  to  my  Southern  countrymen,  it  is  my  fixed  in 
tention  to  remain  altogether  passive  as  to  the  future,  being 
quite  content,  if  my  absence  from  the  country  shall  be 
deemed  desirable,  to  be  a  sojourner  in  foreign  lands  un 
til  my  returning  once  more  to  a  land  that  I  so  dearly 
love  shall  be  deemed  no  longer  objectionable. 

"  '  I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  obedient  servant, 

"  '  II.  S.  FOOTE.' 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          405 

"Having  handed  this  letter  to  General  Dix  and  re 
ceived  his  promise  that  it  should  be  transmitted  to  Wash 
ington  immediately,  I  remained  in  New  York  a  day  or 
two  only,  and,  having  engaged  my  passage  to  Liverpool, 
was  almost  in  the  act  of  setting  out  upon  my  destined 
voyage,  when  Colonel  Ludlow,  of  General  Dix's  staff, 
came  on  board  the  steam-ship  where  I  was,  and  handed 
me  a  note  from  Mr.  Seward  to  the  general,  requesting  him 
to  advise  me  that  my  second  communication  had  just 
been  placed  in  the  hands  of  President  Lincoln  for  his  con 
sideration.  Having  no  special  reason  for  supposing  that 
this  second  letter  had  been  more  favorably  received  than 
the  former  one  had  been,  with  great  solicitude  of  mind  I, 
set  sail.  After  the  lapse  of  several  days  I  determined  to 
write  to  Mr.  Lincoln  as  follows : 

"  '  On  board  the  Mail  Steamer  City  of  Cork,  > 
February  21,  1865.  > 

"  i  His  Excellency  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 

United  States  of  America : 

"  'SiR, — It  is  with  some  hesitation  that  I  venture  to 
address  you.  We  are  personally  strangers  to  each  other, 
and  I  am  quite  conscious  that  I  have  no  special  claims  to 
your  kindly  regard,  and  still  less,  if  possible,  to  your 
political  confidence.  But  the  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Seward  hav 
ing,  in  his  official  capacity,  politely  caused  me  to  be  in 
formed,  through  the  Military  Commandant  at  New  York, 
General  John  A.  Dix  (just  as  I  was  setting  out  for  Liver- 
pqol,  whither  I  am  now  voyaging),  that  my  last  epistolary 
communication  to  him  had  been  placed  in  your  hands  for 
consideration,  as  a  former  one  had  been ;  being  sensible 
likewise  that,  in  the  very  hasty  preparation  of  both  these 


-106  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

communications,  I  had  left  almost  wholly  untouched  sev 
eral  topics  which  might  possibly  with  advantage  be  some 
what  more  fully  developed — at  the  hazard  of  being  re 
garded  by  you  as  both  obtrusive  and  pertinacious,  and 
by  others,  perchance,  as  foolishly  sanguine  and  fanciful, 
I  shall  now  proceed  to  subjoin  one  or  two  additional 
suggestions  upon  the  momentous  subject  of  peace  and 
the  restoration  of  the  Federal  Union.  I  write  to  you 
from  mid-ocean,  while  the  stormy  billows  of  the  surround 
ing  sea  are  every  moment  painfully  reminding  me  of  that 
fearful  scene  of  commotion  and  turmoil  which  I  have  left 
behind  me,  in  a  land  once  so  peaceful  and  happy,  but  now 
marked  so  woefully  with  ravage  and  the  copious  shedding 
of  fraternal  blood  in  civil  strife.  Sir,  allow  me  to  say,  in 
all  earnestness  and  sincerity,  that  in  my  opinion  the  an 
cient  classic  poets  have  not  described  Neptune  himself  as 
having  more  power,  as  the  grand  composer  of  the  waves 
of  the  vexed  and  raging  ocean,  than  you  now  possess,  in 
your  high  official  character,  for  calming  the  troubles  which 
at  present  so  deplorably  convulse  the  enlightened  and 
patriotic  freemen  who  inhabit  our  own  native  America. 
You  hold  the  trident  of  pacification  in  your  hands ;  may  it 
be  wielded  with  true  benevolence  and  wisdom,  and  in  the 
genuine  Washingtonian  spirit ! 

"'I  have  heretofore  suggested  for  your  consideration 
that  the  resolution  now  before  the  United  States  Con 
gress,  proposing  an  amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion,  should  itself,  if  possible,  be  so  modified,  before  its 
final  incorporation  into  that  instrument,  as  to  provide  for 
the  gradual  or  prospective  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of 
the  South,  in  lieu  of  the  plan,  now  propounded,  of  imme- 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          407 

diate  abolition.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  examples  which 
have  been  heretofore  supplied  by  several  of  the  free  states 
of  the  North  themselves  (the  anxiety  of  whose  people  to 
rid  themselves,  as  soon  as  conveniently  practicable,  of  a 
system  which  had  grown  exceedingly  odious,  and  whose 
admitted  practical  wisdom  in  regard  to  all  matters  apper 
taining  to  mere  economical  concerns  fit  them  admirably 
for  the  attainment  of  sound  views  upon  such  a  question 
as  that  under  consideration)  might  well  encourage  the 
hope  that,  if  seasonable  endeavors  were  essayed,  it  might 
not  yet  be  found  impossible  to  obtain  the  consent  of  all 
those  states  to  such  a  change  in  the  resolution  of  amend 
ment  above  referred  to  as,  for  many  reasons  additional  to 
those  heretofore  stated,  I  regard  as  in  the  highest  degree 
desirable.  The  inevitable  derangement  of  the  complex 
system  of  agricultural  labor  hitherto  existing  in  the  South, 
which  all  must  perceive  will  be  the  result  of  the  immedi 
ate  emancipation  of  the  whole  mass  of  slaves  now  engaged 
in  the  cultivation  of  Southern  plantations ;  the  inconven 
iences  and  sufferings  sure  to  result  to  all  classes  of  South 
ern  population  from  the  putting  in  operation  at  once  of  a 
new  system  of  labor  heretofore  wholly  untried  in  the  cot 
ton-growing  states  of  the  South,  without  allowing  the  least 
time  for  preparing  to  meet  such  a  prodigious  shock  to  the 
planting  interests  located  therein,  and  for  the  providing  of 
comfortable  arrangements  in  favor  of  the  liberated  slaves 
themselves,  it  would  really  seem  might  well  incline  our 
Northern  fellow-citizens,  if  appealed  to  in  time,  to  consent 
to  such  an  alteration  in  their  plan  of  emancipation  as 
would  be  likely,  while  avoiding  the  fearful  consequences 
alluded  to,  to  prevent  also  those  feelings  of  heart-burning 


408  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

and  grave  discontent — yea,  even  of  resentment  itself — 
which  would,  even  should  the  Federal  Union  be  perma 
nently  restored,  render  the  future  relations  of  the  two 
sections  hereafter  any  thing  but  mutually  agreeable  and 
advantageous.  If,  as  I  shrewdly  suspect  will  turn  out  to 
be  the  case,  a  sufficient  number  of  the  states  shall  not  be 
found  to  have  given  their  sanction  to  the  proposed  con 
stitutional  amendment  to  make  it  part  of  the  organic  law, 
why,  allow  me  to  ask,  shall  not  the  form  of  amendment 
heretofore  so  earnestly  pressed  by  me  upon  your  attention 
be  at  once  acquiesced  in  ?  Why  should  not  you,  Mr. 
President,  yourself  propose  it  ?  Why  should  you  not  in 
this  way  secure  the  peaceful  extinction  of  slavery,  by  the 
unanimous  vote  of  all  the  states,  both  North  and  South? 
Why,  in  other  words,  shall  you  not  become  the  grand 
reconciler  of  contending  factions?  Why  should  you  not 
aspire  to  become  the  second  founder  of  the  republic  ? 

"  '  Eecollect,  I  beseech  you,  sir,  that  the  Southern  Ex 
tremists,  unwise  as  has  been  their  action,  are  not  the  only 
offenders  against  the  cause  of  the  Federal  Union;  that 
other  factionists,  influenced  by  strong  sectional  feeling, 
by  a  strange  and  astpunding  concordia  discors,  co-operated 
most  fatally  in  the  production  of  the  present  melancholy 
state  of  affairs.  Suppose  we  "  let  by-gones  be  by-gones;"  let 
us  be -friends  and  brethren  once  more  upon  principles 
which  will  justify  a  reasonable  hope  that  our  voluntary 
reunion  may  be  permanent. 

"  '  I  have,  in  the  course  of  the  present  correspondence, 
once  or  .twice  incidentally  alluded  to  the  celebrated  Mon 
roe  doctrine  as  presenting,  alike  to  the  states  of  the  North 
and  those  of  the  South,  a  means  of  cordial  reconcilement 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.  409 

and  of  future  prosperity  and  strength.  Let  me  say  here, 
in  addition,  that  I  deem  it  one  of  the  most  fortunate  cir 
cumstances  which  could  be  possibly  imagined  that  such 
an  opportunity  of  doing  away  forever  with  sectional  dis 
trust  and  animosity,  and  of 'consolidating  the  national  Union, 
should  have  been  thus  seasonably  afforded,  as  this  same 
Monroe  doctrine  has  so  remarkably  supplied.  Just  rec 
ollect,  if  you  please,  that  the  favorite  idea  of  all  the  ven 
erated  fathers  of  American  liberty,  in  the  earlier  days  of 
the  republic,  was,  that  the  moral  ascendency  as  well  as 
physical  domination  of  the  Anglo-American  race,  their 
peculiar  institutions  of  government,  and  their  social  mor 
als,  were  to  be  ultimately  coextensive  with  the  great  con 
tinent  itself  where  it  is  our  fortune  to  be  located.  Bear 
in  mind,  also,  that  it  is  essential  to  the  progress  of  liberal 
sentiment  in  this  hemisphere,  the  healthful  and  beneficial 
advancement  of  science,  and  all  the  useful  and  elevating 
arts  of  civilized  existence,  that  a  cordial  consociation  and 
co-operation  of  energies  of  every  kind  should  be  in  some 
way  effectually  secured,  with  a  view  to  the  attainment  of 
the  great  end  in  contemplation ;  and  I  can  not  at  all  doubt 
that  you  will  fully  agree  with  me  in  the  opinion  that  it  is 
indeed  the  voice  of  true  wisdom  and  of  enlightened  pat-" 
riotism  also,  which  invokes,  which  entreats  you,  with  an 
earnestness  not  known  to  the  selfish  votaries  of  faction, 
to  seize  at  once  the  golden  opportunity  which  an  all- 
bounteous  Providence  has  so  fortunately  presented  to  you 
of  becoming  not  only  the  restorer  of  your  country's  hap 
piness,  but  the  vindicator  also  of  the  principles  of  civil 
and  religious  freedom  in  our  own  favored  hemisphere. 
"  'Doubt  not,  I  pray  you,  that  the  chivalrous  sons  of  the 

S 


410  SCYLLA  AND   CHAEYBDIS. 

South  will,  if  justly  and  liberally  treated  in  this  the  day 
of  their  sore  travail  and  suffering,  second  you  in  all  your 
exertions  to  maintain  the  Monroe  doctrine  in  all  its  pri 
meval  scope  and  vigor.  They  know  the  history  of  that 
doctrine  well,  and  it  stands  associated  with  many  of  their 
proudest  and  most  inspiring  recollections.  They  remem 
ber  that  though  in  theory  originating  in  the  generous  bo 
som  and  expanded  and  far-reaching  intellect  of  a  renown 
ed  British  statesman,  the  lamented  George  Canning*  (sus- 

*  "Those  who  have  made  themselves  familiar  with  the  parliamentary 
life  of  Mr.  Canning  will  not  regard  me  as  at  all  overstating  his  conduct 
on  this  important  subject.  Hansard's  '  Parliamentary  Debates'  show  that 
this  truly  upright  and  courageous  British  statesman  not  only  acted  the 
part  attributed  to  him  above,  but  that  he,  more  than  once,  on  very  strik 
ing  occasions,  warmly  felicitated  himself  upon  having  done  so.  His  mem 
orable  declaration  in  Parliament,  that  he  had  called  into  existence  new 
states  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  'in  order  to  redress  the  balance  of  pow 
er  disturbed  in  the  East,'  is  of  course  remembered  by  all  the  admirers  of 
this  great  master  of  speech.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  known  to  all  that,  as  ear 
ly  as  the  month  of  August,  1823,  Mr.  Canning,  in  an  interview  with  Mr. 
Rush,  the  American  minister  near  the  court  of  St.  James  at  that  period, 
urged  that  the  United  States  should  unite  with  Great  Britain  in  a  formal 
declaration  against  any  of  the  Continental  powers  of  Europe  being  allow 
ed  to  take  possession  of  any  portion  of  the  territory  of  the  American  con 
tinent  then  recently  rescued  from  Spain.  Referring  to  the  designs  sus 
pected  at  that  time  to  be  entertained  by  France  in  particular,  he  stated  to 
Mr.  Rush  that  he  'was  satisfied  that  the  knowledge  that  the  United  States 
would  be  opposed  to  it  as  well  as  England  could  not  fail  to  have  a  de 
cisive  influence  in  checking  it.'  In  a  letter  to  Mr. Rush,  written  a  few 
days  after  this  noted  interview,  he  said,  referring  to  the  apprehended  trans 
fer  of  Mexico  to  France,  that  Great  Britain,  while  unwilling  to  interfere 
with  any  efforts  on  the  part  of  Spain  to  repossess  herself  of  her  ancient 
colonial  possessions,  *  could  not  see  the  transfer  of  any  portion  to  any  oth 
er  power  with  indifference.'  In  several  other  letters  this  view  of  the  sub 
ject  was  earnestly  presented  by  Mr.  Canning  to  Mr.  Rush,  who  was  at  last 
persuaded  to  concur  with  him,  and  to  bring  the  subject,  as  he  did  in  a  very 


EFFOETS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.          411 

tained,  if  my  memory  serve  me  faithfully,  in  this  the  most 

forcible  manner,  to  the  consideration  of  Mr.  Monroe  and  his  cabinet.  The 
promulgation  of  what  is  known  as  ''The  Monroe  doctrine' was  the  result. 
Mr.  Monroe,  in  a  message  to  Congress,  expressed  himself  as  follows : 
'  With  the  existing  colonies  or  dependencies  of  any  European  power  we 
have  not  interfered  and  shall  not  interfere ;  but  with  the  governments  who 
have  declared  their  independence,  and  maintained  it,  and  whose  independence 
we  have,  on  great  consideration  and  on  just  principles,  acknowledged,  we  could 
not  view  any  interposition  for  the  purpose  of  oppressing  them  or  controlling 
their  destiny,  by  any. European  power,  in  any  oilier  light  than  as  a  manifesta 
tion  of  an  unfriendly  disposition  toward  the  United  States.'  Referring  to 
this  very  message,  Lord  Brougham,  then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  said,  'The  question  with  regard  to  South  America  now  was,  he  be 
lieved,  disposed  of,  or  nearly  so  ;  for  an  event  had  recently  happened,  than 
which  no  event  had  ever  dispersed  greater  joy,  exultation,  and  gratitude 
over  all  the  free  men  of  Europe ;  that  event,  which  was  decisive  on  the 
subject,  was  the  language  held  with  respect  to  Spanish  America  in  the 
speech  or  message  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  Congress.' 
Sir  James  Mclntosh,  in  one  of  his  noblest  speeches,  alluding  to  the  same 
message  of  Mr.  Monroe,  said,  'This  wise  government,  in  grave  but  determ 
ined  language,  and  with  that  reasonable  but  deliberate  tone  that  becomes 
true  courage,  proclaims  the  principles  of  her  policy,  and  makes  known  the 
cases  in  which  the  care  of  her  own  safety  will  compel  her  to  take  up  arms 
for  the  defense  .of  other  states.  I  have  already  observed  its  coincidence 
with  the  declarations  of  England,  which,  indeed,  is  perfect,  if  allowance  be 
made  for  the  deeper,  or,  at  least,  more  immediate  interest  in  the  independ 
ence  of  South  America,  which  near  neighborhood  gives  to  the  United 
States.  This  coincidence  of  the  two  great  English  commonwealths  (for  so 
I  delight  to  call  them,  and  I  heartily  pray  that  they  may  be  forever  united 
in  the  cause  of  justice  and  liberty)  can  not  be  contemplated  without  the 
utmost  pleasure  by  every  enlightened  citizen  of  the  earth. '  It  is  a  very 
clear  proposition  that,  if  the  Great  Britain  of  to-day  is  the  Great  Britain 
of  Mr.  Canning's  time  (and  who  can  doubt  it?),  that  this  same  Monroe 
doctrine  may  yet  become  the  nucleus  of  union  and  manly,  efficient,  co-op 
erative  energy  among  all  who  speak  the  English  language  in  both  hem 
ispheres,  and  who  cherish  a  true  regard  for  the  free  institutions  derived 
from  a  common  ancestry.  So  mote  it  be! — H.  S.  F." 


412  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

glorious  movement  of  his  public  life,  by  such  men  as  a 
Brougham  and  a  Mclntosh),  yet  that  it  is  alike  true  that 
from  the  year  1823  up  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  present 
unhappy  war  in  1861,  every  administration  of  the  gov 
ernment  of  which  you  are  now  the  chief  executive  func 
tionary  has  uniformly  asserted  and  maintained  this  Magna 
C/iarta  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  with  a  steady  firmness 
and  with  undiminished  zeal.  John  Quincy  Adams,  Dan 
iel  Webster,  Lewis  Cass,  Millard  Fillmore,  James  Buchan 
an,  President  Pierce,  and  Edward  Everett,  of  the  North ; 
James  Monroe,  John  C.  Calhoun,  Henry  Clay,  William  H. 
Crawford,  Andrew  Jackson,  John  Tyler,  and  James  K. 
Polk,  of  the  South,  at  different  periods  and  in  different 
modes,  are  well  known  to  have  signalized  their  devotion 
to  the  great  American  principle  embodied  in  the  far-famed 
Monroe  doctrine ;  and  it  is  a  little  too  late  now  to  expect 
any  considerable  portion  of  the  descendants  of  those  great 
men,  some  of  whom  have  gone  down  to  the  grave  with 
so  much  honor,  to  relinquish  those  muniments  of  national 
safety  and  freedom  which  have  been  thus  far  so  nobly 
maintained. 

"  'I  venture  to  predict,  Mr.  President,  that  if  such  just 
and  gracious  treatment  shall  be  now  accorded  to  the  South 
as  her  people  have  a  clear  right  to  demand  in  the  adjust 
ment  of  the  terms  upon  which  peace  and  union  shall  be 
once  more  restored,  this  same  Monroe  doctrine  is  destined 
shortly  to  become  the  effectual  healer  of  sectional  distem- 
peratures — the  sovereign  uniter  of  hearts  which  should 
never  have  been  divided  —  the  veritable  Macedonian 
sword  itself,  which,  skillfully  wielded,  will  yet  be  seen  to 
cut  asunder  that  Gordian  knot  of  discord  which  has  here- 


EFFORTS  TO  OBTAIN  PEACE.  413 

tofore  so  fearfully  puzzled  and  perplexed  even  the  most 
gifted  of  our  statesmen.  I  shall  not  venture  to  specify 
all  the  noble  results,  whether  present  or  prospective, 
which  are  now  so  obviously  placed  within  reach  of  a 
lofty  magnanimity  and  a  wise  statesmanship.  There  are 
certain  delicate  considerations  connected  with  this  deep 
ly-interesting  subject  upon  which  I  do  not  deem  it  at 
all  expedient  to  enlarge.  I  have  already,  I  fear,  occu 
pied  more  of  your  attention  than  you  will  consider  alto 
gether  justifiable,  and  will  therefore  now  conclude  with 
assuring  you  that  I  am  your  obedient  servant, 

"CH.  S.  FOOTE.' 

"On  arriving  in  the  city  of  London,  I  sat  down  to 
draw  up  this  address  to  my  valued  neighbors  and  friends 
of  Tennessee.  It  is  not  now  my  fortunate  lot  to  see  you 
face  to  face ;  I  may  possibly  never  again  have  that  satis 
faction  ;  but  I  intreat  you,  my  countrymen  and  fellow- 
citizens,  whatever  may"  be  the  action  of  President  Lin 
coln  and  the  politicians  now  in  power  in  Washington 
City,  upon  the  propositions  submitted  to  them  in  this  cor 
respondence,  that  you  will  yourselves  lose  no  time  in  re 
turning  to  the  bosom  of  the  Federal  Union.  It  is  far 
better,  in  my  deliberate  opinion,  that  you  should  do  so, 
and  do  so  at  once,  than  to  take  the  chances  of  future  mil 
itary  success  under  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  present  of 
ficial  associates,  and  rely  upon  them  for  the  future  resto 
ration  of  your  liberties,  after  they  shall  have  been  once 
completely  surrendered  to  the  most  unfeeling  and  de 
grading  despotism  that  has  existed  in  the  world  since  the 
days  of  Dionysius  of  Syracuse." 


414:  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

When  I  left  the  port  of  New  York,  in  the  month  of 
February  last,  I  expected  to  be  absent  only  eight  weeks. 
The  passport  which  I  had  received  did  not  in  express 
terms  allow  of  my  coming  back  to  the  United  States  un 
less  with  the  consent  of  the  government ;  but  I  did  not 
in  the  least  degree  doubt  that  when  President  Lincoln 
should  learn  that  I  was  again  on  American  soil,  and  had 
come  back  alone  for  the  purpose  of  adding  my  personal  per 
suasions  to  those  which  Iliad  already  addressed  to  my  /South 
ern  friends  in  behalf  of  a  ready  and  cheerful  submission  to 
Federal  authority,  he  would  not  fail  to  perceive  that  my 
motives  and  intentions  were  at  least  good,  even  if  he  should 
deem  it  prudent  to  reject  my  assistance  in  the  work  of 
pacification.  Anticipating,  as  I  did  (which  anticipation 
I  had  publicly  avowed  in  the  Confederate  Congress  pre 
vious  to  the  vacation  of  my  seat  in  that  body),  that  long 
before  the  month  of  April  should  expire  General  Lee 
would  be  compelled  to  surrender  both  Eichmond  and  the 
gallant  army  which  he  commanded,  and  with  the  purpo 
ses  just  named  in  view,  I  did  not  deem  it  safe  to  remain 
across  the  ocean  more  than  two  months ;  so,  after  issuing 
the  pamphlet  referred  to,  I  took  a  rapid  tour  through 
England,  France,  and  Italy,  and  returned  to  New  York 
only  a  day  or  two  previous  to  the  making  known  of  the 
act  of  surrender  in  that  city.  In  relation  to  the  obsta 
cles  which  were  so  painfully  and  unexpectedly  inter 
posed  to  the  full  execution  of  this  scheme  I  have  nothing 
now  to  say  in  the  way  of  complaint. 

I  will  now  conclude  this  chapter  by  expressing  the  fer 
vent  hope  which  I  feel  that  the  day  may  not  be  far  dis 
tant  when  sectionalism  and  all  its  evil  concomitants  shall 


ADVICE  TO  THE   SOUTHERN  PEOPLE.  415 

cease  to  exist  in  our  noble  republic,  and  when  union, 
concord,  and  confraternity  may  every  where  prevail  in 
the  land  of  Washington,  of  Jackson,  of  Webster,  and  of 
Clay,* 

*  Last  summer,  while  in  Canada,  having  an  opportunity,  as  I  thought, 
of  ascertaining  what  was  likely  to  be  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  present 
Congress,  I  took  the  liberty  of  admonishing  my  Southern  fellow-country 
men  in  regard  to  their  own  future  course  upon  this  all-important  subject. 
I  warned  them  that,  in  order  to  secure  their  own  restoration  to  the  civic 
rights  of  which  the  war  had  deprived  them,  it  was  indispensable  that 
they  should  promptly,  and  without  any  appearance  of  unwillingness,  grant 
all  thase  reasonable  concessions  to  those  who  had  been  liberated  by  the 
war  as  the  government  of  the  United  States  had  undertaken  to  guaran 
tee.  I  labored  to  show  them -that  the  granting  of  these  concessions  could 
alone  so  strengthen  the  arm  of  the  President  as  would  enable  him  to 
shield  them  against  the  attempts  making  in  certain  quarters  for  their 
own  permanent  enslavement.  I  endeavored  to  make  manifest  to  them 
the  undoubted  fact  that  Mr.  Davis  and  the  satellites  by  whom  he  was  sur 
rounded  in  Richmond,  by  obstinately  refusing  to  allow  any  negotiations 
for  peace  to  be  set  on  foot  at  a  time  when  large  Confederate  armies  were 
yet  in  the  field,  had  placed  them  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  their  con 
quering  foes,  who  had  it  in  their  power  now  to  deal  out  to  them,  in  all 
their  harshness,  the  disabilities  and  discomforts  which  it  is  so  often  in 
war  the  fate  of  the  conquered  to  suffer.  I  brought  to  their  view  the  fact 
that  those  with  whom  they  had  been  contending  in  arms  stood  solemnly 
pledged  to  the  recently  liberated  blacks  of  the  South  that  they  should 
henceforth  enjoy  freedom,  ivith  all  the  means  of  preserving  it;  and  I  besought 
them,  promptly  and  with  as  great  an  appearance  of  cheerfulness  as  possi 
ble,  that  they  would  themselves  formally  grant  liberty  to  those  who  had 
been  in  fact  already  virtually  emancipated  by  the  war,  in  such  a  form  as 
to  preserve  the  newly-enfranchised  race  from  all  possibility  of  being  there 
after  resubjugated.  I  even  went  so  far  as  to  suggest  that  this  course 
was  alike  necessary  to  be  taken,  in  order  to  rescue  the  white  millions  of 
the  South  from  a  state  of  permanent  degradation,  as  it  was  to  the  future 
concord  and  safety  of  the  whole  population  dwelling  in  what  had  been  so 
long  recognized  as  the  slaveholding  region,  among  whom  feelings  of  mu- 


416  SCYLLA   AND   CHARYBDIS. 

tual  trust  and  kindness  could  not  be  reasonably  expected  ever  to  arise  un 
less  all  serious  Inequalities  in  civic  rights  should  be  effectually  done  away.  I 
regret  to  say  that  the  course  pursued  in  several  of  the  states  of  the  South 
in  regard  to  this  matter  has  not  been  such  as  might  have  been  reasonably 
anticipated.  By  tardy  and  apparently  reluctant  action  in  the  granting 
of  those  things  which  it  is  really  not  in  their  power  ultimately  to  with 
hold,  several  of  the  states  referred  to  have,  it  is  to  be  feared,  greatly  weak 
ened  their  own  position,  and  enfeebled  the  President,  their  only  protector 
now,  in  his  efforts  to  serve  them.  How  long  they  will,  under  the  coun 
sels  of  shallow  and  senseless  demagogues,  persevere  in  their  present  course, 
remains  to  be  seen.  For  their  own  sake,  and  for  the  repose  and  happi 
ness  of  the  whole  republic,  I  hope  that  in  a  week  or  two  we  shall  learn 
that  wiser  and  more  considerate  action  has  been  finally  adopted ;  that,  in 
consequence  thereof,  the  Southern  representatives  and  senators  have  been 
received  in  Congress ;  that  military  organizations  in  the  bosom  of  the 
states  of  the  South  have  been  dispensed  with  ;  that  the  habeas  corpus  has 
been  every  where  restored ;  that  all  need  for  the  Freedmcn's  Bureau  has 
ceased ;  and  that  perfect  federative  equality  may  be  thus  secured  among 
all  the  states  of  this  grand  and  glorious  republic. 

While  I  now  write,  it  is  painful  to  learn  that  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  of  Tennessee,  a  body  elected  by  less  than  a  third  of  the  qualified 
voters  of  the  state,  the  members  of  which  have  been  heretofore  claiming 
to  be  far  more  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  than  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  their  fellow-citizens  whom  they  obstinately  hold  in  a  state 
of  cruel  disfranchisement,  and  whom  they  are  day  by  day  driving,  by  intol 
erable  oppression,  into  exile,  has  deliberately  refused  to  grant  to  persons 
of  African  descent  the  right  to  testify  in  courts  of  justice.  This,  I  repeat, 
has  been  done  by  the  Union  men  of  Tennessee,  par  excellence  the  persons 
who  are  boasting  every  day  that  they  are  the  zealous  and  faithful  sup 
porters  of  the  President !  Now  I  undertake  to  say  that  such  action  as  this 
is  really  more  hostile,  practically,  to  the  avowed  reconstruction  policy  of 
President  Johnson  than  any  thing  besides  which  these  individuals  could 
possibly  have  done. 

Outside  of  the  state,  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  whole  people  of  Tennessee 
will  be  held  responsible  for  the  insane  and  illiberal  conduct  on  this  sub 
ject,  which  I  feel  assured  that  a  very  large  majority  of  those  not  now  al 
lowed  by  a  despotic  faction  even  to  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage,  were  it 
in  their  power,  would  emphatically  repudiate. 


PROMPT  ACQUIESCENCE  TRUE  WISDOM.  417 

It  is  really  astonishing  to  hear  that  men  in  this  enlightened  age  should 
for  a  moment  hesitate  in  regard  to  the  propriety  of  allowing  persons  of 
African  descent  to  testify  in  courts  of  justice,  especially  in  cases  where 
their  own  life,  liberty,  or  property  is  involved.  It  is  the  most  cruel  mock- 
ery  to  call  themyree,  and  yet  deny  this  essential  right;  it  is,  moreover, 
the  most  palpable  and  unblushing  hypocrisy.  In  the  name  of  Heaven, 
who  could  possibly  be  injured  by  such  an  act  of  simple  justice  in  behalf 
of  an  unhappy  race  who  have  long  submitted  cheerfully  to  bondage,  and 
who  have  only  accepted  liberty  when  it  has  been  tendered  to  them  ?  Ev 
ery  lawyer  of  philosophic  mind  would  say  at  once,  that  to  allow  freedmen 
to  testify,  in  any  case,  would  be  attended  with  no  evil  consequence  what 
ever  to  those  who  were  free  from  nativity.  Each  witness  brought  into 
court  to  give  evidence  would  be  necessarily  subjected  to  examination  and 
cross-examination,  and  an  astute  and  unprejudiced  jury  would  then  de 
termine  how  far  such  evidence  was  entitled  to  credence.  I  can  well  im 
agine  a  thousand  cases  in  which  this  same  right  to  testify  might,  in  its  ex 
ercise,  be  eminently  beneficial  to  white  citizens — yea,  lives  might  be  saved 
from  the  scaffold,  character  be  rescued  from  undeserved  discredit,  and 
the  most  valuable  property  rights  be  secured  from  destruction,  by  the  ve 
racious,  manly,  and  unprejudiced  testimony  of  one  who  had  himself  been 
born  a  slave.  It  is  heartlessly  unjust  to  the  black  man  to  assert  that  he 
is  less  a  respecter  of  truth  and  less  inclined  to  the  exercise  of  justice  than 
the  white  man.  I  have  lived  among  this  race  all  my  life,  and  what  I  now 
say  on  this  subject  is  the  fruit  of  more  than  half  a  century's  experience 
and  observation. 

At  any  rate,  I  now  feel  authorized  again  to  declare  to  that  portion  of 
my  fellow-countrymen  of  the  South  who  are  still  perilously  tampering 
with  this  delicate  and  important  matter,  that  there  is  no  possible  ground 
for  hoping  that  the  white  men  of  the  South  will  themselves  be  restored  to 
.their  suspended  civic  rights  until  they  consent  themselves  to  do  justice  to 
others. 

KST  By-the-by,  I  see  that  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  has  been  given  (and 
rightfully  too)  increased  powers  in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  in  consequence 
of  this  strange  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  Legislature. 

S2 


418  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Observations  mainly  upon  the  Facts  recited  in  the  preceding  Chapters. 

I  PROPOSE  now  to  bring  this  volume  to  a  conclusion 
with  the  presentation  of  a  few  additional  observations,  hav 
ing  reference,  either  direct  or  indirect,  to  facts  already 
brought  to  notice,  or  to  others  too  obvious  and  familiar 
to  have  required  an  earlier  specification. 

1.  No  clearer  proposition  could,  in  my  judgment,  be 
possibly  stated  than  the  one  insisted  on  so  emphatically 
in  all  that  I  have  heretofore  written,  that  the  war,  from 
the  devastation  and  suffering  of  which  the  country  is  now 
slowly  emerging,  did  not  necessarily  grow  out  of  the  fact 
that  African  slavery  existed  in  the  South,  and  did  not 
exist  in  the  North,  and  that  there  was  not  really  any  thing 
worthy  the  notice  of  a  philosophic  mind  in  the  fact  that, 
while  white  men  and  white  women  in  the  North  per 
formed  the  greater  part  of  all  the  rougher  physical  labor, 
and  voluntarily,  this  was  done  in  the  South  chiefly  by 
persons  of  a  black  or  brown  complexion,  and  after  the 
manner  that  has  been  called  involuntary.  The  truth  is, 
that  the  opposition  to  the  continuance  of  African  slavery 
in  the  region  wherein  it  has  just  become  extinct,  as  the 
inevitable  result  of  the  war  that  has  been  for  four  years 
raging,  was  confined  in  the  North  to,  comparatively 
speaking,  a  very  small  number  of  persons,  and  still  few 
er  of  these  were,  until  very  recently  at  least,  possessed  of 


NO   IRREPRESSIBLE   CONFLICT.  419 

any  large  amount  of  influence  over  the  general  public 
mind  of  the  country.  Outside  of  small  fanatical  and  po 
litical  cliques,  there  was  not,  even  as  late  as  five  years 
ago,  any  strong  antagonism  of  sentiment  between  the  slave- 
holding  and  the  non-slaveholding  sections  of  the  repub 
lic.  As  for  any  antagonism,  of  pecuniary  interest  in  con 
nection  with  Southern  slaveholding,  the  ascertained  exist 
ence  of  which,  as  a  source  of  large  pecuniary  gain,  if  be 
lieved  also  to  be  permanent,  might,  in  an  age  so  merce 
nary  as  ours,  prove,  perhaps,  to  some  extent,  productive 
of  a  sort  of  reciprocal  rivalry  of  feeling,  this  is  the  merest 
phantom  that  ever  vexed  the  over-fevered  brain  of  a  fan 
ciful  visionary.  The  pecuniary  interests  of  the  North 
and  South,  in  connection  with  slaveholding,  it  is  true, 
were  not  identical,  but  so  far  were  they  also  from  being 
conflicting  and  irreconcilable,  that  they  were  positively  in 
perfect  accord  with  each  other,  and  were,  anterior  to  the 
war,  constantly  multiplying  and  intensifying  ties  of  sym 
pathetic  kindness  between  the  two  sections.  There  is  no 
necessary  antagonism  between  the  blacksmith  and  the 
miller,  the  fisherman  and  the  hunter  of  game,  the  culti 
vator  of  the  land  and  the  mariner  who  plows  the  fields 
of  ocean.  On  the  contrary,  all  of  them,  and  a  thousand 
diverse  but  not  necessarily  hostile  classes  besides,  may  not 
only  subsist  in  quiet  as  members  of  the  same  community, 
but  their  very  differences  of  employment,  leading  them 
naturally  into  the  interested  reciprocation  of  the  respective 
products  of  their  labor,  must  necessarily  generate  amity 
instead  of  hostility.  It  is  quite  safe  to  affirm  that,  ante 
rior  to  the  war,  there  was  more  capital  in  the  North  than 
in  the  South  dependent  for  its  profitable  employment 


42(T  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

upon  the  African  slaveholding  system.  The  growers  of 
cotton,  sugar,  tobacco,  and  other  slave-raised  products  in 
the  South,  though  their  multiplied  responsibilities,  moral 
as  well  as  physical,  were  indeed  most  burdensome,  de 
rived  far  less  of  clear  profit  from  the  outlay  of  their  capi 
tal  than  did  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of  the 
North,  and  the  other  numerous  classes  dependent  upon 
them.  The  truth  of  this  statement  was  alike  manifest  in 
innumerable  instances  of  individual  fortune  in  the  North, 
arising,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  the  slaveholding  sys 
tem — in  the  rapid  and  unprecedented  growth  of  large 
commercial  marts,  and  in  the  innumerous  ramifications 
of  manufacturing  industry.  It  is  said  in  Holy  Writ  that 
"  where  a  man's  treasure  is,  there  will  his  heart  be  also," 
and  thus  it  undoubtedly  was  in  the  case  under  consider 
ation.  It  was  not  in  nature  for  those  who  were,  daily 
and  hourly,  over  the  whole  North,  becoming  richer  and 
richer  from  the  cultivation  of  Southern  soil  by  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  Africa,  to  cherish  feelings  of  illiberal 
hatred  for  those  whose  skillful  and  vigilant  administra 
tion  of  a  system  to  them  so  productive  of  gain  was  con 
stantly  increasing  the  aggregate  quantity  of  their  wealth, 
and  with  it  the  means  of  luxurious  accommodation,  of 
extended  influence,  and  of  magnificent  liberality.  There 
are  many  who  write  and  speak  on  this  subject,  and  who 
speak  and  write,  too,  most  flippantly  and  plausibly,  who 
really  imagine  because  they,  before  the  war,  hated  the 
slaveholding  system  of  the  South,  the  whole  people  of 
the  North  did  the  same  thing.  There  never  was  a  great 
er  mistake  committed.  I  have  had  in  my  time  much  in 
terest  in  looking  into  the  truth  of  this  matter,  and  have 


CORRECTION  OF  A  SERIOUS  ERROR.  421 

enjoyed  good  opportunities  too  of  finding  out  actual  facts, 
and  I  aver  now  that  it  is  my  solemn  and  fixed  conviction 
that  there  were  not,  five  years  ago,  two  twentieths  of  the 
whole  Northern  population  who  would  not  have  greatly 
preferred  slavery  to  continue  in  the  South  for  an  indefi 
nite  period,  to  participating,  in  the  least  degree,  in  its  sud 
den  extinction.  It  is,  indeed,  not  at  all  important  to  dis 
cuss  this  matter  at  present  with  a  view  to  the  possible  re 
vival  of  African  slavery  in  the  South  at  any  future  time. 
The  man  any  where  who  calculates  upon  such  a  revival 
is  not  far  from  being  a  fit  subject  for  some  insane  asy 
lum.  African  slavery  in  the  South  is  indeed  gone  for 
ever,  and  I  am  confident  that  there  are  not  one  thousand 
intelligent  persons  in  that  region,  of  all  the  former  slave- 
holding  class,  who  would  now  resuscitate  this  defunct 
system  if  they  had  it  ever  so  much  in  their  power  to  do 
so.  But  it  is  important  that  the  large  and  influential 
class  in  the  South  who  were  former  owners  of  slaves,  and 
who  for  many  years  to  come  will  undoubtedly  exercise  a 
most  potential  influence  there,  should  be  assured,  in  an 
authentic  and  satisfactory  manner,  that  the  destruction  of 
their  property  was  not  deliberately  sought  by  a  majority 
of  their  Northern  fellow-citizens,  but  that  their  present 
condition — so  far,  at  least,  as  any  one  in  the  North  is  re 
sponsible  for  it — is  the  result  of  influences  originally  very 
feeble  and  limited  in  their  scope  of  operation,  and  whose 
capacity  for  mischief  has  been  supplied  in  a  great  degree 
by  the  indiscretion  and  overweening  ambition  of  individ 
uals  holding  high  official  position  among  themselves. 
Secession  is  chiefly  accountable  for  the  destruction  of  African 
slavery.  The  combined  action  of  extremists  of  the  North 


422  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

and  of  the  South  brought  on  the  war,  which  a  few  feeble 
abolitionists  could  never  have  created;  and,  in  a  mo 
ment  of  unparalleled  folly,  the  only  solid  guarantee  that 
it  was  possible  in  the  nature  of  things  that  this  anoma 
lous  and  world-hated  system  could  possess,  viz.,  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  with  the  consent  of  the 
slaveholdmg  class  themselves,  was  cast  aside,  and  is  now 
lost  to  it  forever!  This  result  though,  should  not  now, 
and  I  am  well  assured  it  will  not  be  hereafter,  a  source 
of  permanent  regret  to  the  white  population  of  the  South. 
They  will,  indeed,  be  far  better  off  in  time  to  come  with 
out  slavery  than  with  it.  They  will  be  relieved  from  a 
most  painful  and  perplexing  responsibility.  If  the  new 
system  of  agricultural  labor  shall  succeed  (and  all  good 
citizens  must  earnestly  desire  that  it  should),  the  whole 
Southern  people  will  be  far  more  prosperous  hereafter 
than  they  have  been  heretofore.  Labor  in  the  South  will 
be  more  diversified,  and  be  likely  to  yield  more  solid  ben 
efits  of  every  kind.  Manufacturing  and  mineral  industry 
too  will  be  now'  seen  to  flourish,  for  the  first  time,  in  that 
great  and  prolific  region,  and  even  Southern  commerce 
may  hereafter  attain  a  more  healthful  and  self-supporting 
existence.  But  no  man  need  expect  less  antagonisms  of 
interest  hereafter  to  be  manifested  between  the  North  and 
the  South  than  have  heretofore  prevailed ;  and  if  certain 
people  who  are  now  making  a  great  noise  in  particular 
Northern  vicinages  can  have  their  own  way,  in  spite  of 
all  that  the  beneficent  wisdom  of  government  can  do,  it 
is  to  be  feared  that  antagonisms  of  feeling,  "  imbedded" 
in  the  moral  constitutions  of  bigoted  and  narrow-minded 
zealots,  may  breed  new  and  fatal  discords  and  conten- 


MUTUAL   FORBEARANCE   RECOMMENDED.  423 

lions  where  peace  and  happiness  might  be  restored,  and 
continue  permanently  to  abide. 

2.  There  surely  never  was  a  time  when  mutual  for 
bearance  and  moderation  were  more  necessary  to  be  ex 
ercised  on  the  part  of  good  and  patriotic  men,  both  North 
and  South,  than  at  present,  when  certain  editors  of  the 
South  are  urging  that  none  of  the  reasonable  concessions 
demanded  by  the  President  at  the  hands  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  of  that  section  shall  be  yielded  by  them,  without 
which  the  only  being  on  earth  who  can  restore  them  to 
their  forfeited  rights  and  privileges  will  be  utterly  pow 
erless  for  their  relief;   and  when  one  or  two  editors  in 
the  North,  whose  newspapers  are  stated  to'have  a  very 
wide  circulation,  are  vehemently  insisting  that  the  con 
stitutional  amendment  now  proposed,  if  adopted,  would 
give  to  the  Federal  government  absolute  control  over  all 
the  domestic  concerns  of  the  states,  and  thus  inevitably 
organize   an  imperial   despotism  in  Washington   City. 
The  fight  between  the  two  bands  of  sectional  extremists, 
which  is  still  lingering,  is  the  only  circumstance  at  pres 
ent  existing  which  would  seem  calculated  to  renew  the 
dangers  to  which  the  liberties  of  the  country  have  been 
for  four  years  subjected  by  an  unnecessary  and  impolitic 
war.     All  truly  reasonable  and  patriotic  men  in  either 
section  will  be  inclined  to  say  to  the  President  (as  the 
leader  of  those  now  so  happily  co-operating  with  him 
in  the  putting  down  of  extremists  both  North  and  South), 

"IN  MEDIO  TUTISSIMUS  IBIS." 

3.  Cicero,  in  several  of  his  incomparable  epistles,  ex 
presses  his  conviction  that  if  Caesar,  after  the  termination 
of  the  great  civil  war  in  which  Pompey  had  perished, 


424  SCYLLA   AND   CHABYBDIS. 

should  be  allowed  an  opportunity  of  putting  in  exercise 
his  own  generous  wishes,  he  would  gradually,  and  by 
such  means  as  were  open  to  him,  restore  the  ancient  Con 
stitution  of  Rome,  with  its  curious  and  complex  system  of 
checks  and  balances.  Julius  Caesar  himself  was  far  too 
profound  and  discerning  a  statesman  to  suppose  that  any 
man  could  accomplish  a  work  so  difficult  in  an  instant, 
especially  when  there  were  still  a  few  men  every  where 
to  be  found  in  whose  bosoms  the  spirit  of  revolt  was  ever 
ready  to  rekindle,  and  while  the  mercenary  and  selfish 
members  of  his  own  faction  were  constantly  crying  out 
for  new  confiscations  and  executions.  Improvident  and 
short-sighted  politicians  destroyed  Caesar's  life  by  assas 
sination  before  his  beneficent  plan  of  restoration  could  be 
accomplished ;  civil  war  was  renewed,  and,  lo !  Augus 
tus,  Tiberius,  Caligula,  and  a  host  of  bloody  tyrants  be 
side,  succeeded.  History  is  constantly  repeating  itself; 
unfortunately,  though,  her  oracles  are  either  not  listened 
to  or  are  received  in  unwilling  ears.  Oh,  my  country  ! 

4.  A  little  more  than  twelve  months  ago,  I  introduced 
in  the  Confederate  Congress  at  Eichmond  resolutions  as 
sertive  of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  as  embodying  the  true  pol 
icy  of  all  the  friends  of  freedom  in  this  hemisphere.  Sev 
eral  newspapers  of  the  South  took  me  very  pointedly  to 
task  on  account  of  these  same  resolutions,  charging  me, 
in  fact,  with  having  made  a  movement  toward  reconstruc 
tion.  Who  could  then  have  believed  that,  within  a  few 
months  from  that  time,  men  high  in  Confederate  confi 
dence,  and  ultra  advocates  of  state-rights  and  state  sover 
eignty,-  would  voluntarily  fly  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
only  reliable  republic  on  earth  to  seek  protection  at  the 


GRADUAL   EMANCIPATION,  425 

hands  of  a  confessed  despot,  and  give  such  aid  as  it  might 
be  in  their  power  to  supply  in  the  propping  up  of  the 
tottering  imperial  throne  of  an  Austrian  usurper — thus 
consigning  to  the  most  degrading  servitude  the  upright, 
gallant,  and  persecuted  supporters  of  republican  institu 
tions  in  unfortunate,  down-trodden  Mexico ! 

0  tempora  !  0  mores  f 

5.  Since  the  question  whether  the  existence  of  African 
slavery  shall  or  shall  not  continue  on  this  continent  is 
now  forever  settled;  since  there  are  but  few  among  those 
who  were  formerly  interested  therein  who  would  now, 
after  all  that  has  been  occurring  for  a  twelve-month  past, 
be  willing  to  have  it  restored,  it  may  be  permitted  to  me 
to  say,  that  I  shall  always  be  of  opinion  that  the  adoption 
of  a  plan  of  gradual  emancipation,  instead  of  the  one  now 
in  operation,  would  have  been  far  better  for  all  concerned. 
For  then  the  great  shock  to  the  planting  operations  of  the 
South — which  all  now  admit  to  be  very  serious  indeed, 
the  whole  effect  of  which,  too,  is  yet  to  be  ascertained — 
would  have  been  avoided ;  those  who  are  now  freedmen 
might  have  been  kindly  and  skillfully  prepared  for  the 
great  change  which  was  ultimately  to  occur  in  their  con 
dition,  and  most  of  the  difficulties  with  which  President 
Johnson  has  had  to  contend,  but  which  he  has  met  with 
such  manly  energy  and  resolution,  would  have  been  hap 
pily  avoided ;  and  the  Southern  people,  coming  back  vol 
untarily  into  the  Union  by  a  peaceful  counter-revolution 
most  easy  to  have  been  effected  at  the  time,  and  taking 
it  upon  themselves  the  restoration  of  domestic  concord 
and  the  dominion  of  law,  reconstruction  would  have  oc 
curred  in  a  manner  to  have  left  no  heart-burnings  be- 


426  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

hind,  and  secession,  overcome  as  it  would  infallibly  have 
been  by  the  cheerfully-exerted  energies  of  the  deluded 
masses  themselves,  would  have  been  as  thoroughly  derac 
inated  and  destroyed  as  the  most  devoted  Unionist  could 
possibly  have  desired.  Hereafter  the  whole  world  will 
learn  how  easy  of  execution  this  counter-revolutionary 
project  would  have  been. 

6.  It  is  curious  to  observe  that  some  of  the  champions 
of  abolition  are  claiming  all  the  credit  of  overthrowing 
slavery  in  the  South.     Now  the  destruction  of  this  sys 
tem  was  undoubtedly  the  fruit  of  the  war  which  has  just 
terminated ;  so  that,  in  attempting  to  deprive  the  South 
ern  secession  leaders  of  their  portion  of  the  honor  of  up 
rooting  slavery,  these  monopolizing  gentlemen  must  inev 
itably  take  upon  themselves  the  exclusive  responsibility  of 
bringing  on  one  of  the  bloodiest  and  most  exhausting  con 
tests  of  arms  that  was  ever  prosecuted.     In  thus  violating 
the  truth  of  history,  instead  of  securing  to  themselves  an 
honorable  fame,  they  really  place  themselves  in  a  most 
odious  and  discreditable  condition.     Let  the  real  fact  be 
confessed :  secession  and  abolition  united  brought  on  the 
war,  and  the  ruin  of  the  slaveholding  system  of  the  South 
is  their  joint  work.     The  striking  poetic  picture  presented 
by  Milton  in  his  "  Paradise  Lost,"  wherein  we  learn  that 
the  cohabitation  of  Satan  and  Sin  brought  Death  into  ex 
istence,  would  really  almost  seem  to  have  been  again  ex 
emplified. 

7.  If  there  be  any  either  so  stupid  or  so  illiberal  as  to 
have  heretofore  token  it  for  granted  that  all  in  the  North 
ern  States  concerned  in  the  emancipation  efforts  were  de 
ficient  in  the  high  moral  attributes  of 'justice  and  humanity, 


GERRIT  SMITH  A  TRUE   PHILANTHROPIST.         427 

how  much  must  they  have  been  surprised  of  late  to  dis 
cover  that  some  of  the  most  earnest  and  strenuous  advo 
cates  of  universal  amnesty,  as  applied  to  those  lately  in 
rebellion,  are  persons  who  for  twenty  years  or  more  have 
labored  unceasingly  for  the  destruction  of  African  slav 
ery  !  The  noble  and  enlightened  efforts  of  the  Hon.  Grer- 
rit  Smith  and  others  of  the  class  mentioned,  to  counteract 
the  unwise  and  wicked  policy  of  subjecting  to  capital  pun 
ishment  large  numbers  of  those  called  rebels,  have  estab 
lished  in  their  favor  claims  to  the  general  respect  of  their 
countrymen  and  of  the  world,  which  ought,  for  the  good 
of  mankind,  to  prove  far  more  enduring  than  the  fame  of 
the  most  renowned  conqueror  that  has  ever  led  soldiers 
to  battle.  Mr.  Smith's  discourse  on  this  subject  last  sum 
mer,  at  Cooper  Institute,  is  instinct  with  the  most  generous 
sentiments  of  kindness  and  true  Christian  charity,  while 
his  argument  supplying  demonstrative  proof  that  it  was 
not  even  possible  for  treason,  as  that  great  offense  has  been 
heretofore  understood,  to  have  been  perpetrated  by  Jef 
ferson  Davis  and  his  associates,  under  the  peculiar  circum 
stances  existing  (sustained  as  that  argument  was  by  nu 
merous  authorities  the  force 'of  which  it  is  impossible  to 
counteract),  ought  to  bring  the  deep  blush  of  shame  to  the 
cheek  of  that  class  of  hireling  advocates  and  upstart  dema 
gogues  who  had  before  that  been  contending  that  nothing 
could  be  more  easy  than,  in  accordance  with  British  and 
American  judicial  precedents,  to  work  conviction  in  the 
cases  referred  to.  This  view  of  the  subject  by  no  means 
negatives  the  position  that  the  levying  of  war  upon  the 
Federal  government  is  treason,  but  simply  that  the  right 
to  treat  such  conduct  as  treason  may  be  waived,  or  volun- 


428  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

tarily  yielded  up  by  a  government  of  unlimited  power  to 
do  all  things  in  war  convenient  and  needful  to  its  own 
successful  prosecution  of  measures  of  defense. 

8.  True  wisdom  requires  that,  while  all  appropriate 
means  should  be  employed  by  those  who  are  intrusted 
with  the  administration  of  a  government  professing  to  be 
free  for  enforcing  the  authority  of  the  laws  and  the  es 
tablished  principles  of  order,  due  care  should  also  be  ex 
ercised,  in  order  to  avoid  the  extinction  of  the  spirit  of 
popular  liberty,  with  the  idea  of  which  is  always  neces 
sarily  coupled  that  of  prompt  and  manly  resistance  to  all 
palpably  unconstitutional  and  oppressive  governmental 
acts.     It  may  be  well  said  that  this  principle  of  resistance 
to  unjust  and  deeply  injurious  measures  of  government 
is  the  very  main-spring  of  all  that  we  know  of  republican 
freedom.     The  Constitution  of  Tennessee  contains  lan 
guage,  in  reference  to  this  matter,  of  most  emphatic  im 
port,  and  the  celebrated  proclamation  of  Andrew  Jackson, 
as  well  as  the  able  and  eloquent  speech  of  President  John 
son,  delivered  four  years  ago  in  the  American  Senate,  may 
be  severally  regarded  as  containing  a  most  sound  and 
practical  exposition  of  this  principle  of  legitimate  resist 
ance. 

9.  It  is  admitted  by  all  who  are  in  the  least  degree 
worthy  to  be  called  statesmen,  that,  in  our  complex  system 
of  government,  the  reserved  and  correlative  powers  of  the 
states  are  indispensable  to  the  prevention  of  centralism, 
and,  consequently,  essential  also  to  the  preservation  of  lib 
erty.     Those,  therefore,  who  are  now  urging  that,  in  op 
position  to  the  manly  and  reasonable  exposition  of  the 
true  meaning  of  the  lately  adopted  constitutional  amend- 


AFRICAN  SUFFRAGE.  429 

ment,  the  Federal  government,  under  that  very  amend 
ment,  should  exercise  unlimited  control  over  all  the  most 
essential  domestic  concerns  of  all  the  states,  would  seem 
to  be  willing,  in  order  to  execute  a  favorite  theory  for  the 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  our  people  recently  enfranchised,  to  consign 
all  the  remainder  of  our  thirty  millions  to  bondage  the 
most  degrading,  and,  at  the  same  time,  interminable.  This 
would  be,  indeed,  a  good  deal  more  absurd  than  the  con 
duct  of  the  man  who  is  represented  by  ^sop  as  cutting 
up  the  precious  goose  that  laid  the  golden  egg  ! 

10.  Since  those  who  were  lately  slaves  in  the  South 
are  now  freemen,  it  is  obviously  necessary  to  the  welfare 
and  happiness  of  all  classes  of  our  population  that  the  peo 
ple  who  have  been  thus  enfranchised  should,  in  every  legit 
imate  and  proper  mode,  be  fitted  for  the  judicious  exercise 
of  their  newly-acquired  civil  rights,  and  that  they  should 
be  likewise  supplied  with  the  most  convenient  means  of 
maintaining  these  rights  also  against  future  assailment. 
How  far  it  may  be  politic,  in  particular  states,  for  the  at 
tainment  of  the  purpose  mentioned,  to  extend  the  right 
of  suffrage  to  persons  of  the  African  race,  is  a  point  well 
worthy  of  mature  consideration ;  but  President  Johnson 
would  seem  very  wisely  to  have  decided  that  this  must 
be  left  to  be  regulated  exclusively  by  each  of  the  states 
interested.  That  these  states  might,  all  of  them,  in  the 
condition  in  which  they  now  find  themselves,  provide  at 
once  for  the  extension  of  the  privilege  of  voting  to  all 
possessed  of  the  requisite  amount  of  intelligence,  and  who 
are,  by  ties  of  property,  substantially  connected  with  the 
body  politic,  there  appears  to  be  but  little  reason  to  doubt 


430  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

The  proposition  now  so  freely  discussed  in  various  quar 
ters,  to  put  all  the  classes  of  the  population  in  all  the  states 
upon  precisely  the  same  footing  in  regard  to  suffrage,  requir 
ing  uniformly  the  duplicate  qualification  specified,  if  found 
practicable,  may  possibly  yet  turn  out  to  be  the  true  so 
lution  of  a  difficulty  which  might  well  puzzle  the  wisest 
men  that  the  world  has  yet  produced.  As  already  stated, 
though,  this  is  most  clearly  a  matter  for  local  cognizance 
alone,  and  any  impertinent  or  dictatorial  intermeddling 
with  it  from  exterior  quarters  must  inevitably  be  product 
ive  of  the  greatest  mischief.  It  will  be  far  "  better  to  bear 
those  ills  we  have,  than  fly  to  others  that  we  know  not  of." 
Calm,  courteous,  and  brotherly  interchange  of  views,  and 
temperate,  unprejudiced  discussion  of  the  question  under 
dispute,  would  probably,  in  a  short  time,  dissipate  all  ex 
isting  difficulties.  If  we  can  manage  to  keep  out  the 
bane  of  sectionalism,  all  will  probably  be  well. 

11.  Since  penning  the  above,  President  Johnson's  first 
annual  message  has  reached  my  hands,  and  I  gladly  ex 
tract  therefrom  the  following  emphatic  declaration  of 
principle,  the  importance  of  which  declaration  by  the 
executive  chief  of  the  republic,  at  such  a  moment,  can  not 
be  too  highly  appreciated : 

"  Without  states,  one  great  branch,  of  the  legislative 
government  would  be  wanting ;  and,  if  we  look  beyond 
the  letter  of  the  Constitution  to  the  character  of  our  coun 
try,  its  capacity  for  comprehending  within  its  jurisdiction 
a  vast  continental  empire  is  due  to  the  system  of  states. 
The  best  security  for  the  perpetual  existence  of  the  states 
is  the  "  supreme  authority"  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  perpetuity  of  the  Constitution  brings 


PRESIDENT  JOHNSON   AS   A   PACIFICATOR.          431 

with  it  the  perpetuity  of  the  states ;  their  mutual  relation 
makes  us  what  we  are,  and  in  our  political  system  their 
connection  is  indissoluble.  The  whole  can  not  exist 
without  the  parts,  nor  the  parts  without  the  whole.  So 
long  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  endures,  the 
states  will  endure ;  the  destruction  of  the  one  is  the  de 
struction  of  the  other ;  the  preservation  of  the  one  is  the 
preservation  of  the  other. 

"I  have  thus  explained  my  views  of  the  mutual  rela 
tions  of  the  Constitution  and  the  states,  because  they  un 
fold  the  principles  on  which  I  have  sought  to  solve  the 
momentous  question  and  overcome  the  appalling  difficul 
ties  that  met  me  at  the  very  commencement  of  my  ad 
ministration.  It  has  been  my  steadfast  object  to  escape 
from  the  sway  of  momentary  passions,  and  to  derive  a 
healing  policy  from  the  fundamental  and  unchanging 
principles  of  the  Constitution." 

It  is  not  in  my  nature  to  be  the  adulator  of  men  in 
power ;  besides,  I  have  lived  too  long,  and  have  experi 
enced  too  many  of  the  changes  to  which  the  fortunes  of 
men  are  subjected  in  this  state  of  being,  to  expect  much 
or  to  fear  much  from  those  who  any  where  wield  the 
sceptre  of  authority.  But  I  can  not,  in  justice  to  myself, 
refrain  from  declaring  that,  if  President  Johnson  shall 
persevere  to  the  end,  as  I  do  not  doubt  that  he  will,  in 
the  execution  of  his  admirable  scheme  of  reconstruction, 
it  is  evident  that  the  most  signal  success  will  crown  his 
patriotic  efforts.  Ninety -nine  hundredths  of  his  country 
men  every  where  will,  I  am  satisfied,  accord  to  him  their 
warmest  support ;  and  when  the  good  work  of  pacifica 
tion  shall  have  been  once  accomplished,  he  will  be  justly 


432  SCYLLA  AND  CHARYBDIS. 

recognized  by  all  truly  virtuous  and  enlightened  men  as 
the  restorer  of  his  country's  liberties  and  the  renovator 
of  its  glories.  In  view  of  the  great  object,  now  apparent 
ly  almost  attained — the  renewal  of  that  noble  federative 
system  devised  by  our  fathers,  but  which  the  earthquake 
shock  of  civil  war  has  so  seriously  disordered — how  con 
temptible  appear  the  puny  sophisticators  of  the  hour, 
who  are  painfully  taxing  their  overheated  brains  with 
the  utterly  unprofitable  question  whether  or  not  the 
states  lately  in  rebellion  did  or  did  not  succeed  in  getting 
out  of  the  pale  of  the  Union  by  the  now  exploded  expe 
dient  of  secession!  One  thing  seems  to  be  sufficiently 
certain :  these  lately  seceding  states  are  at  present  suffi 
ciently  in  the  Union  to  co-operate  most  promptly  and  ef 
fectively  in  the  great  constitutional  amendment  which 
has  forever  extinguished  slavery  on  this  continent,  and 
deprived  a  vaporing  and  restless  fanaticism  of  that  food 
upon  which  it  has  heretofore  banqueted  and  grown  fear 
fully  potential  for  mischief.  The  special  message  of  the 
President,  which  is  placed  in  my  hand  while  I  now  write, 
sustained  as  it  is  by  the  manly  and  magnanimous  report 
of  General  Grant,  supplies  full  assurance  as  to  the  state 
of  public  feeling  in  the  South  in  regard  to  the  condition 
of  things  brought  about  inevitably  by  the  war,  and  ren 
ders  it  manifest  that,  so  far  as  the  great  body  of  our  vot 
ing  population  both  North  and  South  is  concerned,  a  cor 
dial  and  general  reconcilement  has  been  already  consum 
mated.  We  are  now  fully  justified  in  expecting  for  our 
country  the  realization  of  all  that  national  prosperity  and 
happiness  which  the  most  sanguine  of  our  statesmen  for 
merly  anticipated  for  her,  before  either  abolition  or  seces- 


CO-EQUALITY   OF  THE   STATES.  433 

sion  had  yet  attempted  to  disturb  the  public  repose,  or, 
by  their  conflicting  yet  conjoint  operation,  had  involved  in 
peril  our  own  hopes  of  civil  and  religions  freedom,  and 
those  of  the  whole  world  besides. 


CONCLUSION. 

IN  the  present  volume  facts  have  been  presented  and 
reasonings  stated  which,  it  seems  to  me,  leave  no  reason 
able  doubt  as  to  what  should  be  the  present  action  of  the 
government  if  it  be  desired  to  resuscitate  the  happy 
condition  of  things  existing  before  the  commencement 
of  the  war,  the  effect  of  which  has  been  so  deleterious- 
ly  to  discompose  the  wise  and  salutary  system  of  checks 
and  balances,  without  the  existence  of  which  a  state  of 
pure  republican  liberty  would  have  been  impossible.  It 
is  probable  that  in  a  second  volume,  drawn  up  under 
more  favorable  circumstances,  and  admitting  greater  free 
dom  of  exposition,  many  additional  facts  may  be  exhib 
ited,  somewhat  bolder  arguments  be  adduced,  and  numer- 
"ous  additional  sketches  of  individual  character  and  illus 
trative  personal  anecdotes  be  supplied,  should  the  plan 
of  this  work  seem  to  have  secured  a  fair  portion  of  the 
public  favor.  I  shall  close  now,  for  the  present,  by  an 
emphatic  affirmation  of  a  great  truth,  which  I  can  not  but 
hope  has  been  already  made  sufficiently  apparent,  that 
the  peculiar  civic  institutions  framed  by  our  fathers  can 
not  be  made  preservative  of  permanent  freedom  except 
by  restoring  as  soon  as  possible  the  original  coequality  of 

T 


434  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

the  states,  upon  the  essentiality  of  which  Mr.  Pinckney 
so  cogently  and  eloquently  insisted  in  the  memorable 
Missouri  struggle  of  1819.  Extinguish  this  coequality 
in  any  way,  and,  instead  of  a  republic,  we  will  necessari 
ly  bring  into  existence  an  imperial  despotism,  by  what 
ever  name  called.  Subject  to  enslavement  the  numer 
ous  distinct  communities  formerly  enjoying  liberty,  and 
vest  the  power  of  controlling  all  the  domestic  concerns 
of  each  of  them  in  a  central  government,  whether  that 
central  government  shall  consist  of  a  Roman  Senate, 
with  an  Imperator  or  military  commander  in  chief  at 
its  head,  or  of  an  American  Congress,  with  a  similar 
commander-in-chief  called  President,  empowered  to  coun 
sel  it  in  regard  to  all  public  questions,  and  it  will  not 
be  possible  to  prevent  the  rapid  concentration  of  all 
civil  power  in  the  legislative  and  executive  department 
of  the  system  first,  and  very  soon  thereafter  the  consol 
idation  of  all  power  in  the  hands  of  a  single  individual, 
which  individual  will,  of  course,  be  the  executive  officer 
who  wields  the  war  power.  The  experience  of  nations 
is  uniform  on  this  subject;  and  even  had  no  such  fatal 
example  of  the  ruin  of  freedom  heretofore  occurred,  it 
would  really  seem  that  a  mere  statement  of  this  proposi 
tion,  as  a  yet  unproven  theorem,  ought  to  be  sufficient  to 
enforce  the  important  truth  referred  to  upon  the  most 
opaque  intellect.  I  do  not  desire  to  be  understood  on 
this  occasion  as  denying,  nor  is  it  indeed  at  all  necessary 
for  any  purpose  the  attainment  of  which  is  at  this  mo 
ment  desirable,  that  the  government  existing  in  Wash 
ington  City  was  not,  in  order  to  preserve  its  own  exist 
ence,  fully  justified  in  wielding  all  the  powers  which  it 


PRESIDENT  JOHNSON  AND  HIS   OPPONENTS.        435 

is  known,  upon  the  ground  of  military  'necessity,  to  have 
employed ;  nor  is  it  necessary  either  to  dispute  the  prop 
osition  so  earnestly  insisted  upon  in  certain  quarters  at 
present,  that  these  vast  powers,  once  seized  upon,  may 
continue  to  be  wielded  by  that  government  permanent 
ly,  if  it  shall  choose  to  do  so,  over  those  unfortunate 
eleven  millions  of  American  people  whom  the  terrible 
exigencies  of  war  and  the  unwise  perseverance  in  hos 
tilities  up  to  the  moment  when,  as  has  been  seen,  they 
were  compelled  to  submit  unconditionally  to  the  will  of 
the  conqueror.    But  the  still  graver  and  more  vital  ques 
tion  now  is,  Shall  this  sweeping  enslavement  be  enforced, 
when  such  enforcement  must  inevitably  result  in  the  ul 
timate  enslavement  also  of  the  additional  nineteen  mil 
lions  of  our  whole  federal  population  ?     In  other  words, 
would  those  in  the  two  houses  of  Congress  at  this  mo 
ment  act  wisely  in  pursuing  such  a  course  as  all  far-see 
ing  and  considerate  statesmen  would  unite  in  assuring 
them  must  necessarily  subject  to  despotic  rule  the  very 
people  who  have  selected  them  as  THE  defenders  of  their 
own  liberties?     I  am  afraid  that  unprejudiced  men  in 
future  generations  will  be  inclined  to  recognize  the  strug 
gle  now  progressing  in  Washington  City,  in  connection 
with  President  Johnson's  reconstruction  policy,  as  a  strug 
gle  between  philosophic  and  discriminating  statesmen  on 
the  one  side,  and  factionists  and  demagogues  on  the  oth 
er.     For,  after  all,  what  is  the  distinction  between  these 
two  classes  of  individuals  ?     I  understand  that  a  states 
man  is  one  who  understands  the  concerns  of  his  lohole 
country,  and  who  exercises  also  a  kindly  and  providing 
care  over  all  of  these  concerns  for  the  general  good  of 


436  SCYLLA   AND   CHARYBDIS. 

the  whole  nation,  and  not  only  for  its  temporary  good, 
but. for  its  lasting  welfare;  while  a  factionist  is  purblind 
in  his  very  nature  and  moral  constitution,  delights  in 
indulging  one-sided  and  narrow  views,  acts  alone  in  fur 
therance  of  what  he  supposes  to  be  the  interest  of  his 
own  particular  class  or  faction,  or,  what  is  worse  still,  in 
order  to  obtain  for  himself  and  his  immediate  associates 
a  little  momentary  eclat,  or  the  contemptible  and  unprof 
itable  gratification  of  his  and  their  ungenerous  prejudices, 
or  unphilosophic  and  unamiable  lust  of  power.  The  con 
duct  of  the  patriot  statesman  is  ever  regulated  by  prin 
ciple;  for  the  maintenance  of  principles  he  will  dare  to 
despise  faction,  and  all  its  seductive  rewards  and  fiend 
ish  menaces.  Party,  as  we  all  know,  is  far  superior  in 
dignity  to  faction  ;  and  yet  the  patriot  statesman  will  not 
hesitate  to  disjoin  himself  from  party  itself,  in  order  to 
preserve  his  country's  freedom  and  happiness.  Who  now 
blames  Edmund  Burke  for  openly  abandoning  the  Whig 
party  in  England,  with  which  he  had  been  so  long  and 
so  honorably  allied,  in  order  to  aid  in  rescuing  the  British 
isles  from  Jacobinical  influences,  at  that  moment  being- 
imported  from  the  school  of  Marat,  of  Danton,  and  Robes 
pierre  ?  Who  now  rails  at  Sir  Robert  Peel  for  dissolv 
ing  his  political  affiliation  with  the  opponents  of  Catholic 
Emancipation,  of  Free  Trade,  and  of  Parliamentary  Re 
form  ?  Who,  save  a  few  absurd  bigots,  now  denounces 
Mr.  Clay  for  declaring,  in  1850,  that  if  the  Whig  party, 
of  which  he  had  been  once  the  acknowledged  embodi 
ment,  should  become  dbolitionized,  he  would  no  longer 
hold  connection  with  it?  Who  does  not  admire  even 
Washington  still  more  highly  when  he  learns  from  Mr. 


THE   STATESMAN   AND   THE   FACTIONIST.  437 

Jefferson's  posthumous  writings,  that  the  Father  of  his 
Country  was  never  seen  even  for  a  moment  to  sink  into 
a  mere  party  devotee?  It  is  even  asserted,  on  high  au 
thority,  that  circumstances  may  exist  in  which  a  great 
statesman  might  feel  justified,  amid  the  fierce  and  ever- 
shifting  currents  of  party  conflict,  to  act,  on  principle, 
sometimes  with  one  of  two  antagonizing  factions,  some 
times  with  the  opposing  one,  in  order,  by  casting  the 
weight  of  his  influence  now  into  one  scale,  now  into 
another,  to  preserve  the  contending,  civic  forces  in  a 
state  of  harmless  equipoise.  It  was  just  such  conduct 
as  this  which  posterity  has  so  much  admired  in  the  in 
corruptible  and  enlightened  Halifax,  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  on  account  of  which  the 
illiberal  zealots  of  party  denounced  him  as  a  "trimmer;" 
and  it  is  gratifying  to  learn  from  the  page  of  authentic 
history  that  this  great  and  good  man,*  "instead  of  quar 
reling  with  his  nickname,  assumed  it  as  a  title  of  honor, 
and  vindicated,  with  great  vivacity,  the  dignity  of  the  ap 
pellation.  Every  thing  good,  he  said,  trimmed  between 
extremes.  The  temperate  zone  trims  between  the  climate 
in  which  men  are  roasted  and  the  climate  in  which 
they  are  frozen.  The  English  Church  trims  between 
the  Anabaptist  madness  and  the  Papist  lethargy.  The 
English  Constitution  trims  between  Turkish  despotism 
and  Polish  anarchy;  virtue  is  nothing  but  a  just  tem 
per  between  propensities,  any  one  of  which,  if  indulged 
to  excess,  becomes  vice ;  nay,  the  perfection  of  the  Su 
preme  Being  himself  consists  in  the  exact  equilibrium 
of  attributes  none  of  which  could  preponderate  without 

*  Macaulay. 


438  SCYLLA   AND  CHARYBDIS. 

disturbing  the  whole  moral  and  physical  order  of  the 
world."* 

*  Those  familiar  with  the  public  career  of  Cicero,  who  was  unquestion 
ably  the  ablest  and  most  politic  statesman  of  ancient  times,  and  if  not  the 
first  of  orators  ancient  or  modern,  certainly  only  inferior  to  Demosthenes, 
will  remember  that  there  was  much  in  his  conduct  at  different  periods 
which  indicated  that  he  too  had  learned  that  it  was  neither  wise  nor  safe 
for  a  public  man  of  great  eminence  and  of  extended  influence  to  suffer 
any  political  faction,  struggling  fiercely  for  ascendency,  to  appropriate  to 
itself  exclusively  his  whole  weight  and  influence.  Accordingly,  we  find 
him  now  the  champion  of  the  knights,  now  the  vindicator  of  the  Senate, 
and  now  the  professed  advocate  of  popular  rights.  While  it  seemed  pos 
sible  to  effect  reconcilement  between  Pornpey  and  Caesar  he  joined  the 
faction  of  neither,  professing  friendship  for  both,  and  striving  to  prevent 
that  collision  between  them  which  he  feared  might  result  in  civil  war. 
When,  in  spite  of  his  efforts  to  prevent  it,  war  between  these  celebrated 
chieftains  commenced,  it  is  known  that  he  hesitated  long  whether  to  join 
the  one  or  the  other,  or  to  remain  neutral :  and  when,  finally,  he  withdrew 
from  Rome  and  took  refuge  in  Pompey's  camp,  it  was  so  impossible  that 
he  could  play  the  ignoble  part  of  a  mere  partisan,  that  he  more  than  once 
found  his  life  in  danger  from  the  violence  of  those  who,  forgetful  of  the 
cause  of  freedom,  had  become  the  willing  slaves  of  him  whose  ruin  was 
soon  to  be  consummated  at  Pharsalia.  Even  Cato  condemned  him  for 
not  remaining  upon  neutral  ground,  so  as  to  interpose  effectively,  if  possi 
ble,  for  the  restoration  of  peace ;  and,  long  after  Pompey  had  perished, 
Cicero  more  than  once  expressed  doubt  whether  it  had  not  been  better  for 
Rome  and  the  general  interests  of  freedom  for  Caesar  to  have  been  trium 
phant,  than  to  have  been  compelled  to  succumb  to  the  power  of  his  less 
magnanimous  rival.  Such  a  man  as  this  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
"  give  up  to  party  what  was  meant  for  mankind. " 

Additional  Note. 

I  am  far  from  assuming  that  I  have  read  more  of  history  than  other 
men,  but  yet  I  feel  justified  in  declaring  that,  to  the  extent  of  my  historic 
knowledge,  there  is  no  instance  which  can  be  cited  wherein  distinguished 
public  men  have  more  signally  blundered  than  have  several  gentlemen  of 
no  little  renown  in  the  two  houses  of  Congress  in  regard  to  the  manner  in 


CONCILIATION   THE   TRUEST  WISDOM.  439 

In  view  of  the  cheering  signs  of  national  redintegration 
now  disclosing  themselves  in  Washington  City,  I  am  sure 

which  it  is  now  proper  to  deal  with  the  Southern  people,  in  order  to  insure 
permanent  domestic  quiet  and  the  general  happiness  of  the  republic.  The 
people  of  the  South  have  been  conquered  in  war;  they  feel  and  know  this 
fact,  and  in  general  they  submit  to  their  fate  with  a  calm  and  unmurmur 
ing  acquiescence  which  might  well  awaken  the  sympathy  and  admiration 
of  the  world.  They  know  that  slavery  is  dead,  and  they  would  not  revive 
it  even  if  they  could.  The  former  slaveholding  class  are  especially  in 
clined  to  acquiesce  in  all  the  results  which  the  war  has  produced  ;  and  it 
is  an  undoubted  fact,  of  which  I  could  adduce  innumerable  evidences,  that 
any  hostile  feeling  now  existing  in  the  South  toward  the  enfranchised 
blacks  is  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  poor  laboring  whites,  who, 
very  naturally  perhaps,  are  unwilling  that  the  field  of  industry  shall  be 
occupied  by  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Africa  to  their  own  exclusion.  1 
speak  of  what  I  personally  know  when  I  assert  that  there  is  a  widespread 
and  almost  universal  feeling  of  good-will  and  sincere  amity  prevalent 
among  the  people  of  the  South  at  this  moment  toward  those  with  whom 
they  were  lately  conflicting  in  arms,  so  far  as  the  treatment  they  are  re 
ceiving  will  allow  of  it.  They  are  full  of  respect  and  gratitude  toward 
President  Johnson  and  those  now  so  nobly  aiding  him  in  the  endeavor 
to  restore  them  to  the  free  and  independent  condition  which  they  occupied 
before  the  war ;  and  they  are,  above  all  things,  anxious  to  have  an  oppor 
tunity  of  showing  how  sincere  they  are  in  their  desire  to  perform  all  the 
duties  of  free  citizenship,  and  co-operate  with  good  men  every  where  in 
all  that  can  promote  the  national  honor  and  happiness.  Independent  of 
the  information  which  the  President  has  recently  caused  to  be  laid  before 
Congress  on  this  important  subject,  I  may  be  permitted  here  to  state,  that 
the  senators  and  representatives  who  have  been  recently  sent  from  the 
South  are,  almost  to  a  man,  persons  heretofore  pre-eminently  distinguish 
ed  as  imbued  with  conservative  feeling.  If  admitted  promptly  to  their 
seats,  I  am  confident  that  their  conduct  will  be  such,  in  all  respects,  as  will 
best  conduce  to  the  restoration  of  general  amity  and  concord.  The  moral 
effect  in  the  South  of  such  early  admission  can  not  be  well  estimated,  save 
by  those  who,  from  a  long  Southern  residence,  are  familiar  with  their  emi- 
inent  standing,  both  in  social  life  and  upon  the  general  popular  mind.  If 
admitted,  the  voice  of  faction  will  be  immediately  quieted,  sectional  dema- 


440  SCYLLA  AND   CHARYBDIS. 

that  I  shall  rouse  no  feeling  of  painful  self-consciousness 
in  a  certain  high  official  quarter,  if  I  assert  that  a  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  to  be  truly  worthy  of  his  high 
position,  amid  such  dangers  and  difficulties  as  now  exist, 
must,  to  a  certain  extent,  hold  himself  aloof  from  party 
and  faction,  and  be  able  to  survey,  with  a  calm  composure 
of  spirit,  all  the  strivings  and  blustrous  agitations  of  those 
who  seek  to  make  him  the  mere  slave  and  instrument  of 
party  malevolence  and  prejudice,  while  a  nation  is  de 
manding  at  his  hands  the  performance  of  the  most  exalt 
ed  duties  which  man  has  it  in  his  power  to  perform  on 
this  side  of  the  grave. 

gogues  will  have  at  once  to  go  into  retirement,  and  such  a  burst  of  grati 
tude  will  resound  as  this  republic  has  not  heretofore  known.  Coercion  has 
now  done  all  that  it  was  capable  of  effecting  toward  the  work  of  national 
pacification.  Conciliation  and  kindness  are  at  present  alone  needed  to 
consummate,  this  work,  and  sagacious  statesmen  will  not  fail  to  perceive 
the  truth  that  Milton  has  so  strikingly  enforced,  when  he  says, 

"  Who  overcomes 
By  force  hatli  overcome  but  half  his  foe." 


THE   END. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


REC'D  LD 


INT  MAY  2  7  '65  -9  AM 


APR  12  1968  5  3 


-.BID 


JUL 


LOAM  o 


NOV     41981 


PTf 


FEB     1 


KS 


— 


RET'D     OCT  4     1981 


<  3  0  1983 


358 

6CTD 


ipr' 


TT)21          LD  21A-60m-3,'65 
(F2336slO)476B 


Berkelt 


U.C.BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


a . 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


